Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 05/29/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Now that Decca and Deutsche Grammophon, among others, are all part of Universal, we have seen some interesting things happen, and not all of them bad. What I'm referring to in this case is the new "Original Masters" Limited Edition Box Set series. Finally, the classical music world has taken a page out of the jazz reissue handbook -- put out a quality product featuring rare recordings but make its availability limited, and people will snatch it up. In the "Original Masters" series, first DG and now Decca have each reissued five box sets, of 4 to 7 CDs each, in distinguished, space-saving slim paper boxes, though the style of packaging is different. The DG sets feature 50s style graphics design on their covers, while the Decca ones have a distinctive rainbow/spectrum pattern on the spines and banners, and a black-and-white photo of the artist in question on the face of the box.
This particular set brings back Eugen Jochum's classic Beethoven Symphony Cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic and Bavarian RSO from the 1950s and early 60s. (For your information, Symphonies 1, 5 & 9 are with the RSO, and 3, 6, 7 & 9 are in mono -- you do the math on the others.) In terms of content, I personally found all of these performances mesmerizing, and if anything only the 5th and 9th were not on par with other celebrated recordings. Well, I guess the consolidation of the music industry isn't so bad after all, as long as I can look forward to more reissues like this."
First class Beethoven from the LP era.
Andre Gauthier | 09/28/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This set from DGG may well never have meant to be a complete cycle of the nine Beethoven Symphonies considering the decade it took to record. "Complete" this and that was not the fashion in the early 50s because of the costs of putting such large groups of LPs together (If I recall it took 10 to put the Toscanini series out). Not even Toscanini's became available as a complete set until around the mid `50s although he'd recorded all of them at one time or another on radio broadcasts. Others existed earlier as well, but they were done one symphony after another, which I think drains the blood out of many of them because of the steady diet of Beethoven. Instead Eugen Jochum took his time to work his way through the various symphonies for a decade with DGG and the result is superb. I'll take four of the best known symphonies as examples to look at briefly.
The only disappointment in the Third or "Eroica", and it is one that is still happening in concert halls, is the lack of the first movement repeat, something that is common to all Jochum's early DGG recordings, not only of Beethoven but of Brahms as well. It costs only 3-4 minutes in time, but alters things drastically. Jochum changed all that later with EMI and Philips. I doubt he had any say in it back on early LP. The mono sound on the Eroica couldn't be any better for what it is, and Jochum manages balances that have since been glossed over by his peers such as von Karajan and later Haitink. For instance, listen to the horns at the beginning of the coda to the first movement; they are carrying the harmonized main theme accompanied by the scales in the strings which in almost every other recording drown out the brass by the 8th measure. Not here. There is real excitement as the tempo pushes ahead slightly faster starting with the recapitulation. It is accomplished so seamlessly that one can feel it, but it never really pulls ahead in a big way. That's great conducting. Only Toscanini in his 1939 NBC performance gets such a tremendously well balanced sound in the same section. His is the unique live performance of this work, but only in the 1939 edition. That's just one little moment among many that makes this recording special for Jochum.
Another mono version is of the Fifth. This crackles along with energy, but never goes into a silly frenzy. Jochum has a feel for tempo and balance that is frankly second to none in a great deal of repertoire, be it Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner or Haydn. The tempi are all well chosen in relationship to one another. I suggest, by the way, that you not listen to the mono recordings on headphones. (I tried this with a pair of Sennheiser HD600s and they tend to bring out every blur in this particular mono recording. On my main speakers the excellent balance of tone cancels out the pinched quality one gets on the earphones.)
The Seventh Symphony also has several other versions that compete with it. There is an early stereo Decca version with Von Karajan that is excellent, a very early New York Philharmonic version with Toscanini, again from the 30s, and oft sighted as the best seventh ever made (I don't go along with that) and then one of my favorites is with Casals at the San Juan festival with an orchestra made up of great artists such as Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo playing the first and second desk violins. That version is utterly unique in my experience. But Jochum achieved something way back in the 50s that nobody else seems to have captured. This is in the last movement of the Seventh. Every time the main phrase comes to an end there is a run in the celli that serves as the pick-up of the opening bar to the next phrase. Most times the symphony is going so fast this can't be heard, and at others it just can't be heard no matter what. Leinsdorf, in a very slow version with Boston manages to make that run audible, but with Jochum going at a very fast speed indeed it is always clearly there. This really struck me when I heard it. The rest of the symphony is equally well built by the great maestro and even with the mono sound it is a thrill to hear. How anyone could find this boring is beyond me.
The 9th is also in mono, has generally good solos with the exception of the over-parted tenor Ludwig Weber. The first two movements work in very special ways. The voicing and registration has suggestions of the great Brucknerian that Jochum certainly was. But the playing is always lean and never slow. The theme and variations of the third movement just make their case at this tempo. I feel that only John Elliot Gardiner on his Early Music recording of the 9th truly gets this movement right. He keeps it moving without subdivisions, something that Jochum doesn't do. None of his contemporaries do either, and that movement was always a slight puzzlement to me for years because it was ALWAYS played too slowly by everyone. Gardiner suddenly bursts forth with his full set and redefines the whole grouping. Gardiner's set is also worth the purchase, and makes for a wonderful contrast to the more homogenized versions with modern day orchestras. It is also a fine learning tool.
The choral finale is the only point in this set that suffers from the mono sound. There's just too much here to get into a one channel mix. Jochum still manages to make a fiery case for the movement and it is an exciting if somewhat archaic sounding performance. DGG now needs to put this BACK on the shelves. No one plays Beethoven in this fashion any longer. If only somebody would or should I say could?
The other symphonies, mostly in early stereo, often have the first and second strings divided on the left and right. The sound is always superior and one can see where DGG gained its reputation. Of course it seems there are very few of these sets available at the moment, so if you have the chance, buy one. This sort of beauty and style has long disappeared.
The previous reviewer who referred to Eugen Jochum as a "hack" has a lot to learn, or possibly UNLEARN. I've heard Jochum in concert many times over the years and to group those of us who like his work together and then insult the conductor strikes me as a rather silly way to write, and not becoming of Amazon reviewers. After all, this is NOT OperaL. I just had to get that one off my chest.
"
A great set
L. Johan Modée | Earth | 02/04/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Jochum was a reliable, truly great conductor of the old school. This set is one of his finest achievements, together with his famous Bruckner cycle for DG. Same orchestras are used here: Berliner Philharmoniker and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (not Berlin RSO, as the review below says).
Most recordings of this set are in mono, but sound quality is very fine nonetheless.
"
A Top Choice--thanks for releasing
Wayne A. | Belfast, Northern Ireland | 12/22/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"There's only one drawback I can find here and it's that the set is a mix of stereo and mono recordings. Otherwise you've got a set of nine that on first listening strikes me as one of the most, if not the most, consistently pleasing that I've ever heard. Jochum's approach is not heaven-storming; it reflects more the side of Beethoven that seemed to revel in his ability to simply make amazing music. I've been more bowled over by certain performances of certain works but I don't recall being so totally enthralled with Beethoven the composer. By not pushing things too hard, Jochum avoids the inconsistency problem most conductors--even the best--have with Beethoven's symphonies. This set gets directly to the joy of music-making, the playing of the orchestras is miraculous and totally unselfconscious. I find myself drawn more and more to Jochum's interpretations, he makes almost anything sound life-affirming. Highly recommended and will, for a while at least, be my set of choice."
Not ground-breaking, but satisfying
John Grabowski | USA | 08/10/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Santa Fe Listener thinks this is a boring set overall, because Jochum just serves up undistinguished readings of works that the orchestras. While I'd opine there's a grain of truth to this, I also feel Jochum serves up subtle distinctions in these very familiar works, works that as SFL observes can be played by the orchestras in their sleep. It's true there are some very pedestrian readings here, and the monumental Eroica gets one of its most boring outings ever. Like all boxed sets, this is a mixed bag, but overall the positives outweigh the negatives to my ears. The Sixth, for example, starts out excruciatingly slow, and slow tempi in general are a problem here (as they can be with Klemperer, Bohm and many other "old school" Germanic conductors.) But the retards within the tempi he sets make for interesting varied listening--listen to the slowdown in the end of the coda of the Fifth's first movement. Delightful! There's a similar effect 40 seconds before the end of the Sixth's first movement, then an energetic rush in the last few bars. It's details like this that make me not agree with SFL's premise that this is autopilot Beethoven. Again in the Sixth, listen to the oh-so-delicate shaping of the first long phrase of the Scene by the Brooke (at 25 seconds in). This reminds me so much of what Mengelberg does in his famous intro to the Mahler 4th with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1939, and the result, while not as boldly stated, is equally appropriate and magical. And in the Seventh Symphony here, there are all kinds of wonderful considerations of weight and balance in the scherzo, and the finale is the orgy of sound and speed it ought to be. It won't displace Carlos or Erich Kleiber but it's a very fine account on its own merit, and hardly the Berlin Philharmonic on autopilot. (If you want to hear them on autopilot, and I have, listen to them with Seiji Ozawa conducting.) The First is a delightful bundle of energy, as fresh and straightforward as it ought to be. The Second has the added weight without trying to sound like a Big Symphony. Listen to the gorgeous wind playing in the first movement intro--such beautiful vibrato (most of the time the vibrato here is barely noticible or non-existent) that compliments the trill in the strings a moment later. It's attention to these tiny details that impresses me with Jochum, and why I feel he is an underrated conductor who gets the bums rush sometimes because he never did anything showy or radical. In short, I think he's every bit Klemperer's equal and in many ways his superior.
That brings us to the Ninth, which is almost always the letdown in a Beethoven cycle for me. The conductor's propensity for slowish tempi and a bit of bloat, I expected a slow, walrus-y first movement. Surprise! Jochum storms through this movement, giving it weight and drama. Again, you won't get any radical ideas thrown at you, but that's okay, there are other ways to bring out the greatness in Beethoven. If I want weird, I'll listen to Harnoncourt or Gardiner. ;-)
Jochum builds tension *slowly* in this first movement...the beginning of the development section simmers and hints of furies to come, rather than just sounding like an expositional repeat (which it turns out not to be, of course). Like a great dramatist, Jochum's sense of *timing* and *weight* are flawless. The scherzo is competent but could use more bite. (In fairness, that's my criticism of most scherzi in the LvB 9th.) Don't expect 1937 or even 1942 Furtwangler here. The adagio is lyrical and heavenly, as one would expect with Jochum, and the finale...well, it's old school of course, with a recitative that's slow and heavy, as was common then. Things build nicely and with great anticipation to the entrance of "O Freunde." The chorus is superb, but allowance has to be made for the time of the (mono) recording, and clarity is not one of the recording's selling points, and the tenor phones it in. If Gramophone really said this cycle has more low points than high, I also have to be reminded that Fanfare once called Herbert Blomstedt's tepid Beethoven cycle on Brilliant Classics distinguished. I take both pubs with a grain of salt. This is not top tier Beethoven, and if you have no tolerance for mono recordings (some of these are stereo and some are late mono) or little shelf space I'd not recommend this (although it comes in a space-saving cardboard box that's barely an inch thick). But there are some very fine moments here (dig the fugue after the tenor hangs up) that make this, for me, worth owning, though not desert island material. Few complete cycles completely satisfy, though, and this is as good as many of them out there that cost more."
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