While neither of these performances looks set to challenge currently prevailing ideas or to point out new paths, they're certainly more than merely respectable. As you'd expect with Herbert Blomstedt the intellectual grasp is firm, so that even if the Eroica's first movement progresses at a relatively relaxed allegro con brio, progress it undoubtedly does. Shape and momentum are equally strong, more than enough so to carry the music through the occasional laborious stretch—the build-up to the first movement's huge syncopated climax from bar 248 (track 5, 8'10'') for instance. And if after exposure to period instrument practice the thoroughly modern phrasing seems a little too suave, there is still some excellent solo playing. The San Francisco principal oboe in particular puts on a fine show—perhaps he or she is a little skittish in the answer to the second part of the Marcia funebre theme (track 6, 2'24''), but it's good to hear playing of such character. The solo horn's mysterious pre-echo of the first movement recapitulation is another detail that sticks in the memory.
As an ensemble the San Francisco Symphony is beyond criticism: alert, tautly disciplined, they give the impression of being able to convert Blomstedt's ideas directly into sounds. Turning to the First Symphony, it's interesting to find that they can lighten their approach without lowering the tension. The First is no divertimento, and neither Blomstedt nor his players treat it like one. Tempos are generally con moto (except the slow introduction) but everything is given due weight. Yet no sooner have I written my last word than I realize where my fundamental reservation lies. Nietzsche said that he could never believe in a god who did not know how to dance—and I'm starting to have similar feelings about Beethoven performance. Impressive as both these readings are, there is something cerebral, sedentary, about them. Images of physical movement don't exactly flood the mind. And if you think that only affects the fast movements, try the Marcia funebre: it's sombre, grand, but it isn't a march. You don't have to go to the revolutionaries for an alternative—the new Gunter Wand Eroica on RCA shows that the traditional-classical approach can also be muscular and graceful.
Playing and musical thinking of such high quality are always worth hearing, especially when so well recorded. At a time when ideas about Beethoven interpretation are themselves undergoing a Beethovenian upheaval the uncontroversial character of these performances may make them more attractive to some buyers. I certainly enjoyed them, but I'd look elsewhere for revelations.'