Beethoven Orchestral Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Ludwig van Beethoven
Label: Philips
Magazine Review Date: 12/1992
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 47
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 434 087-2PH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphony No. 5 |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Frans Brüggen, Conductor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century |
| Coriolan |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Frans Brüggen, Conductor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century |
| Egmont, Movement: Overture |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Frans Brüggen, Conductor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century |
Author: Richard Osborne
Three of Beethoven's most revolutionary works receive here performances that suggest something of the eclat terrible of war. The ardour is the ardour of revolutionary zealots, like the gesturing victim at the centre of Goya's great painting of the Spanish firing-squad entitled 3rd May, 1808. Rarely have I heard Beethoven's textures sound sparer or more brazen than they are here, the string colours complementing the wind colours with a rigour that distinguishes these readings even from those of Norrington on EMI. Equally, Bruggen's are very 'driven' performances. Which is not to say they are merely fast. (In the Fifth Symphony, Bruggen is often closer to Kleiber pere et fils on Decca and DG than he is to the generally speedier Norrington.) Rather, all three performances have a terrific incisiveness and sense of urgent forward propulsion.
The Fifth Symphony gets a grammatically faultless reading from Bruggen and his players. Rarely have I heard the syncopated three-note motto more clearly or more consistently articulated than it is here. (In Carlos Kleiber's famous VPO performance the opening comes perilously close to a triplet rhythm.) The Andante con moto is suitably stern, a striking interlude, no egregious ramble. Bruggen does not observe the repeat of the Scherzo, much disputed but usually de rigeur for period performers. The tempo here is steady, suggesting that Bruggen might be contemplating Klemperer's wonderful idea (EMI) of matching one bar of the Scherzo to half a bar of the concluding march. But, no: come the finale, Bruggen drives fiercely on, every gun in Beethoven's armoury pooping and blazing away for dear life. The concluding Presto becomes a rout in C major.
The recording is first-rate, painting to the life the eerie trenchancy of the playing. My only regret is a rather too pianissimo drum in the transition to the finale.
The two overtures are predictably of a piece with the symphony. But here I wonder how much is being lost. What in the symphony seems wonderfully fiery and single-minded, in the overtures can seem hasty. Take, for instance, the introductory section of the Egmont Overture, Beethoven's absorbing and graphically detailed portrait of the Netherlanders under the heel of the Spanish oppressors. Bruggen conjures wonderful grinding sonorities, but the swift pulse and rather fey rhythmic pointing (the Spaniards as decadents?) come close to trivializing the music. How much more graphic and ponderable (to use Havergal Brian's admiring description of Hans Richter at the start of this piece) is Furtwangler's famous 1947 Berlin recording that Nuova Era reissued on CD some time ago (currently nla). Furtwangler does in 2'56'' what Bruggen in 1'43'' barely begins to contemplate. Wonderful as Bruggen's Fifth is, I can't help feeling that dramatically, psychologically and pictorially—in a word, aesthetically—Furtwangler's is the more historically accurate, the more 'authentic' Egmont.'
The Fifth Symphony gets a grammatically faultless reading from Bruggen and his players. Rarely have I heard the syncopated three-note motto more clearly or more consistently articulated than it is here. (In Carlos Kleiber's famous VPO performance the opening comes perilously close to a triplet rhythm.) The Andante con moto is suitably stern, a striking interlude, no egregious ramble. Bruggen does not observe the repeat of the Scherzo, much disputed but usually de rigeur for period performers. The tempo here is steady, suggesting that Bruggen might be contemplating Klemperer's wonderful idea (EMI) of matching one bar of the Scherzo to half a bar of the concluding march. But, no: come the finale, Bruggen drives fiercely on, every gun in Beethoven's armoury pooping and blazing away for dear life. The concluding Presto becomes a rout in C major.
The recording is first-rate, painting to the life the eerie trenchancy of the playing. My only regret is a rather too pianissimo drum in the transition to the finale.
The two overtures are predictably of a piece with the symphony. But here I wonder how much is being lost. What in the symphony seems wonderfully fiery and single-minded, in the overtures can seem hasty. Take, for instance, the introductory section of the Egmont Overture, Beethoven's absorbing and graphically detailed portrait of the Netherlanders under the heel of the Spanish oppressors. Bruggen conjures wonderful grinding sonorities, but the swift pulse and rather fey rhythmic pointing (the Spaniards as decadents?) come close to trivializing the music. How much more graphic and ponderable (to use Havergal Brian's admiring description of Hans Richter at the start of this piece) is Furtwangler's famous 1947 Berlin recording that Nuova Era reissued on CD some time ago (currently nla). Furtwangler does in 2'56'' what Bruggen in 1'43'' barely begins to contemplate. Wonderful as Bruggen's Fifth is, I can't help feeling that dramatically, psychologically and pictorially—in a word, aesthetically—Furtwangler's is the more historically accurate, the more 'authentic' Egmont.'
Beethoven Orchestral Works
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