Glorious Conclusion To The Best Beethoven Symphony Cycle Of
John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 05/03/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Bernard Haitink's critically acclaimed LSO Live Beethoven symphony cycle ends on a strong note with this splendid hybrid SACD recording of Beethoven's 4th and 8th symphonies. Once more Haitink has used the Jonathan Del Mar-edited Barenreiter Edition scores, offering elegant, impressive interpretations of both symphonies. While Haitink does opt for swifter tempi, his interpretation of the 8th symphony may indeed be the swiftest I have heard, much faster than those from the likes of Abbado, and I believe, Zinman too in their own celebrated recordings using the same Barenreiter Edition score. In stark contrast to a previous Amazon.com customer reviewer, I must commend both Haitink and the London Symphony Orchestra for providing vibrant, exciting performances of these two symphonies. These are exciting performances in which Haitink has emphasized lighter orchestral textures and brisk tempi (though as I have hinted already, the tempi for the 4th symphony aren't nearly as fast as those from other recent recordings using the Barenreiter Edition: Abbado's and Zinman's), replete with refined, vibrant playing from the London Symphony Orchestra's strings, winds and brass (It's almost as if the orchestra was transformed suddenly into either the Wiener Philharmoniker or Staatskapelle Dresden, playing these scores from a Central European perspective; a perspective which I think Sir Colin Davis - the LSO's music director at the time of these LSO Live recordings - would be quite familiar with having made his own superb recordings of Beethoven's piano concertos (with Claudio Arrau as soloist) and symphonies for Philips back in the mid 1980s and early 1990s, conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden.). Anyone who has resisted the temptation of acquiring yet another Beethoven symphony cycle should seriously consider this latest one from Haitink and the London Symphony Orchestra for its superb sonic quality (especially in its Hybrid SACD format version) and Haitink's revelatory interpretations using the Barenreiter Edition scores."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1