There have been few recent Beethoven issues so exciting as this—the first disc in Muti's new cycle. The excitement is, however, of a very different kind from that generated by, say, Leonard Bernstein on DG. Bernstein's approach, even in so firmly classical a work as the First Symphony, is very much in the 'personal dramatic' interpretative tradition: the violins' lyrical elaborations in the first movement introduction are ardently expressive, as though this were the beginning of an extensive slow movement; Muti, however, never loses sight of this music's introductory quality—one senses that power is being held back in preparation for the ensuing allegro.
This kind of far-sightedness characterizes both performances and constantly draws attention to the music's economy and purposefulness. By refusing to make too much of the famous 'fate' theme at the opening of the Fifth Symphony, Muti throws more weight on the subsequent crescendo. One can see this working on a much larger scale in the Scherzo and finale: dramatic emphasis is carefully proportioned, so that each successive entry of the finale's colossally affirmative C major theme seems to make the C minor darkness of the Scherzo more remote. If the crispness and determination of Muti's readings might be described as Toscaninian, so too might the former's inability, or unwillingness, to open out in the music's more lyrical pages: such restraint may be highly effective in a first movement introduction, but it seems ungenerous to say the least in slow movements. Carlos Kleiber's DG account of the Fifth is as tough and purposeful as any modern version, and yet he manages to give each phrase of the Andante its proper expressive weight.
Still, Muti has a great deal to say about the music, and given such fine recordings and such articulate playing, these gritty, if occasionally somewhat restricted performances are well worth exploring.'