There have been some tolerable things in Previn's Beethoven cycle but his evident care for the music is not enough to imprint the performances on mind and imagination at this juncture in the history of these too much recorded works. Compared with EMI's recently reissued CDs of Beecham's account of the Eighth Symphony made with the five year-old RPO in 1951 orKlemperer's 1957 Philharmonia Fourth (reviewed below) the interpretations lack individuality and the playing lacks point. Of the two symphonies, the Fourth responds better to Previn's relaxed, warm-toned approach; the Eighth, by contrast, is very laboured in feel: broadly paced and slow on the uptake.'