Search - Beethoven, Harnoncourt, Coe :: Symphonies 4 & 7

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Randy Given | Manchester, CT USA | 07/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is my favorite Beethoven Symphony series. Over the decades, I have listened to dozens of the series. I have purchased a handful of them. This is the set I keep coming back to. The interpretation is great. The precision is there. The recording is superb. Even the price is right. Not much more that I could ask for!"

An honest and revelatory account, but some flaws

sphaerenklang | UK | 11/14/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Harnoncourt has a reputation for some strangely unorthodox interpretations of the classics, but this isn't one of those recordings that leaves you thinking "why did he do that?". The main difference from the days of Karajan and Klemperer is the clarity of texture: the strings, while audible, do not thickly dominate, and such things as the offbeat woodwind chords in the last movement of the 7th come through easily. The tempos are on the fast side, but not excessively so - suggesting athleticism rather than caffeine- or dogma-fuelled mania. Thankfully, swifter tempos and lighter timbres do not go hand in hand with undernourished tone or short-winded phrasing - Harnoncourt is not throwing the baby of melody out with the bathwater of portentousness. For example, in the slow movement of the 4th the dotted rhythms are lively almost to the point of perkiness, but the melody is a long-phrased legato cantabile. There is also force and power from the brass and timpani where it is needed, showing that Beethoven's climaxes don't need to be underpowered with a small orchestra.The reservations I have are on the first and second movements of the 7th: as with 95% of conductors, Harnoncourt can't get the strings to keep the triple dotted rhythm "up" during the Vivace development section, and it ends up limping rather than bounding - the "little" notes should have been lighter. But I haven't heard a performance where this is done right - perhaps Toscanini? The theme of the famous A minor "slow" movement (actually Allegretto) is extremely quiet, virtually inaudible without adjusting the volume control - ppp rather than the p that Beethoven marked. This is the only disturbing idiosyncracy in a bracing and rewarding disc."