Ludwig van Beethoven Josef Krips London Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven The Nine Symphonies (34 tracks) +Album Reviews +Used CD available for Swap

Impressively Individual Beethoven

R. C. Ross | Birmingham | 01/11/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Josef Krips (1902-1974), Vienna born, was among the most eminent conductors of his time, especially praised as interpreter of Mozart and Schubert. Krips' manner in Mozart, so gracious and elegant, didn't prepare me for the way he conducts the Beethoven symphonies! A student of the conductor Felix Weingartner Krips presents these great works with blazing intensity and Herculean energy and dynamism. Tempi are consistently fast, even in the tremendous Funeral March of the Eroica (Symphony 3). Where Karajan (1960's) needs more than 17 mins. for this movement Krips takes under 13! But despite the fast speeds (which only reflect what Beethoven asks for) Krips is not insensitive (remember his Mozart).These Beethoven deserve to be better known They remind us that the 'new' swift way with Beethoven is in fact not new at all. But there are other virtues to Krips' Beethoven. His pointing of detail, sense of a movement's structure, its climaxes and shape, give these performances substance and depth.The LSO, of course, play well but the recording (from the late 1950's) is only serviceable, there is some harshness in the treble and the bass is boomy - the finale of the 9th is a dreadful recording failure (and the very first part of the first note is missing from Symphony 1). But the performances are recommendable as distinctive and thoroughly 'sound'."

Classic Performances - Bad Sound

R. C. Ross | 01/04/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Josef Krips was a great conductor, and these exciting performances confirm that. The sound (genuine stereo)is full (really TOO full) except for the high strings, which are thin and harsh (especially in Symphony #3). I think these were recorded in the late 1950's. I thought at first that Nimbus, which mastered the cd's, had boosted the highs, but I drug out my old Everest LP record of NOS 2 & 4 and found the same sound on the high strings.The sound is improved if you fiddle with the tone controls, but it is not as good as a more modern recording. Still, this set is a good bargain for the performances alone."

The forgotten genius

T. Lin | 04/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are many great artist-conductors who were overshadowed by others who were much less a musicain but received far more publicity, such is the music buisness. These great conductors have included Ferenc Fricsay, Carl Schuricht, Josef Krips, Paul Kletzki, to name just a few.

It's truly wonderful to see the Krips' set of Beethoven symphonies available on CD and at such a low price even though they are completely worth of a full priced set.

Krips generates truly spirited performances from LOS, the balance between winds and strings are absolutely perfect. His understanding of the score is complete so that every theme and motive is clearly presented and never overpowered by accompaniment figures which sometimes is very tempting. The choices of tempi are always the right ones which means the music has time to breath and all the intensity has room to be generated and released. And most important of all, there is such warmth and humanity in these and all of Krips's performances that the passion and love he had for music is evident and infectious.

Glorious recordings, don't hesitate to grab this set!!"

Beethoven 9 from the London Festival circa 1960

King Lemuel | Puyallup, WA | 04/15/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have quite a few lps conducted by Krips and have these symphonies in a great boxed set with a very nice booklet on the Everest label. Krips and the LSO from 1960 were very able.

Some reviews posted comment about the sound quality on these cds. I would argue strongly against anyone knocking analog from circa 1960 when it was done right! I have a cd on the Yedang Classics label of Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting the USSR RTV Symphony Orchestra- Sibelius Sym 7, Prokoviev Andante for String Orchestra, & Glazunov Scene's de Ballet that is a early 60s analog ported over to CD. This CD SOUNDS tremendous and for it to do so it needed a tremendous analog recording source to start with. This Beethoven 9 by Krips is only a couple of years earlier than Karajan's famous Beethoven 9 recorded in 62 that sound great.

I picked up Krips LSO cd set Christmas 2006 in a tin box at Fred Meyer's for $9.99. The big problem with these CDs is the db levels. They are way too low! I put these files into my wav editor program and compared them to Karajan and Bohm. Karajan is about 1 db too low, Bohm 2 dbs too low and Krips is 3 dbs too low. I have a batch process equilizer program and bumped the master db by 3 (25% increase).

Try listening to the 2nd movement funeral march while driving. The first 3rd and final 3rd have very low levels while the middle has higher levels. I got that woeful classical sound drop off niggly with these cds before I bumped the db levels. These disks have the worst db levels I have seen on a professional classical recording.

PS additional comments:

I just bumped the master db plus three with my computer software and this really helped! In the process I listened all the way thru a couple of times. While there may be no standouts (all time best recordings of individual symphonies) overall this is a great set, especially for $10. I enjoyed listening to every symphony! I especailly enjoyed the 5th and the 9th. The tempos are a little slower than Karajan and faster than Bohm's. The sound is often more majestic like Bohm rather than the dynamic Rene Leibowitz and the Royal Philharmomic (1961) or the recent Abbado BPO live DVDs. I especially enjoyed the wind and brass not being run out of town by the strings. Of all the Beethoven 9s I have heard, Rene Leibowitz has the most dynamic brass. The brass on these cds is almost as dynamic as Leibowitz. The French horns sound very sweet! You will hear the brass section!

"

Listen to the Performance, not the Recording

Andrew A. Smith | Eastbourne, U.K. | 05/30/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I think M.A.Scott must have let his dissatisfaction with the sound quality cloud his artistic judgement. The sound is quite tolerable and certainly better than anything we get in recordings by Pfitzner, Furtwangler or Weingartner - would he dismiss those out of hand? Setting aside the sound, I don't understand how he can be so dismissive of Krip's performances: to me they sound as though the conductor has taken his Viennese style and rethought it. These performances are very, very Viennese: witty, urbane, wise and unforced - they present the music, not the conductor. Mr Scott recommends four Karajan cycles. I have heard two, and attended several performances by him; they told me more about Karajan than they did about Beethoven."

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