If it is one's fate to record the greatest of all symphonic cycles, there's nothing like taking that fate by the throat—which is exactly what Kurt Masur does here. His new Beethoven cycle begins with the Fifth Symphony and what is probably music's most famous opening gesture. In Masur's hands its very impressive indeed, largely because the energy is balanced by clarity and restraint: no long interpolated pauses at the ends of bars 2 and 5, rather the listener is plunged straight into the struggle. From this grows a performance of considerable momentum and dramatic power. It may not be as biting or hard-driven as the much-admired Carlos Kleiber version on DG, but the less relentless approach does allow Masur to bring out more shades of meaning and character, and like Kleiber, he too gives the impression of having found the unifying thread and pulled it taut. In simple metronomic terms, his Andante initially seems a shade less con moto than in many recent versions, but the strong sense of flow soon draws the listener in, especially when each appearance of the A flat major theme is pointed with such winning clarity.
Masur's reading of the Scherzo and finale is also unusually convincing, partly because, like quite a few other recent versions, he observes the scherzo-trio repeat: by the time the transition to the finale is reached the accumulated energy is surprising, even though Masur's tempo isn't particularly fast. It gives the finale something to struggle against, and makes the coda's protracted dance of triumph easier to understand: it also gives passing events like the strings' ppp chord towards the end of the Scherzo (bar 324—7'51'') heightened significance—familiar details suddenly acquire unfamiliar power.
It's a pity to have to spoil all this with a reservation, but the recording is a bit of a disappointment: the string sound is good, but the woodwind, brass and timpani are backwardly placed. I would have liked to hear a little more of the Leipzig Gewandhaus's splendid first oboe player for instance (proof for English ears that central European vibrato can be beautiful), but at least he draws attention to himself. Some important woodwind details, like the cascading C major figures just before the first movement coda (from bar 362—5'45''), emerge with difficulty—the piccolo part in the finale is for the most part virtually inaudible. The brass too aren't very brilliant in the Andante's C major fanfares: true, Masur doesn't cultivate the Bernstein blaze, but I still think there would have been power enough in the playing if the recording had only served it better.
Fortunately the balance in the First Symphony seems about right, and again the performance is very impressive. Masur shows how much can be drawn from the introduction's violin phrases, or at the climactic points of the Andante, without resorting to Bernstein-style agogics, and the Allegro con brio, Scherzo and finale have just the kind of dancing energy to refresh jaded palates. In its quite different way, Masur's version is every bit as fine as the recent Haitink (also on Philips) here, and in the Fifth he's clearly preferable, this despite the weaknesses of the recording—on balance I don't think that should prevent an earnest recommendation.'