Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Roger Norrington, Sarah Walker Yvonne Kenny :: Beethoven - Symphonies 1-9 · Overtures / London Classical Players · Sir Roger Norrington

One to live with

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 03/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Conservatives that enjoy the Beethoven symphonies of Karl Bohm, Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan often criticize the Norrington approach as superficial. A conservaitve reviewer once wrote that people had been shot for less than what Norrington did to the Ninth Symphony. That may have been true during the Stalin Reign of Terror, but probably not otherwise.



I believe Norrington was the first of the period conductors -- the crowd that includes Gardiner, Harnoncourt and Hogwood among the more famous -- to understand there was a message in Beethoven's symphonies that wasn't getting through prior to period performance.



What is that message? That a certain level of nervousness is appropriate in Beethoven. That grandeur is not necessarily Beethoven-like. That speed and taste are not necessarily related (although I wondered how anyone could play the third movement of Beethoven's Ninth at the presto romp in Zinman's set.)



While period performances of Beethoven are commonplace today, this set rocked the music world when it came out in the 1980s. Norrington did not merely clean off old layers of paint on these symphonies; he stripped them down and stained them, allowing an original approach to appear through the veneer.



His approach revealed something about this composer record collectors never knew -- that Beethoven's scores indicated speeds much faster than the norm with orchestral tuttis that build more quickly and explosively that had been the practice in recordings of the post-World War II generation of conductors.



Until Norrington came along, I thought the best approach to Beethoven's symphonies was the full-blown romance of Ernest Ansermet in his set from the 1960s with the Swiss Radio Orchestra. In particular, Ansermet's Symphony 2 had romance with the balance and transparency people have come to expect from period performance of Classic composers like Haydn.



I don't think it is coincidental that Norrington's CD of Beethoven Symphonies 2 & 8 was the most acclaimed single CD of this set, although his "Eroica" was also well-accepted critically. Norrington's work captured the fine qualities of Ansermet from a quarter decade earlier and gave a new voice to Beethoven's music. This is a voice sometimes demonic, sometimes straightforward, usually vivid, always dramatic.



Before I bought this set, I wondered if it could possibly replace longtime favorites in Symphonies 3, 6 and 9, which require different sensibilities from a conductor. Not only did this set exceed my expectations in that regard, the performances have spoken to me in ways Karajan, Bernstein, Walter, Furtwangler and Bohm could not.



Norrington has since released another set of the Beethoven symphonies on the Hanssler label in recordings made during concert performances. These have the advantage of spontaneous music-making, better timpani and are similar in concept to this set. However, many of the speeds Norrington used in the EMI set and are actually hastened in the Hanssler CDs."

Wonderful value for money, 6th & 9th a little disappointing

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 09/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sir Roger Norrington's Beethoven cycle, recorded in London's prestigious Abbey Road Studio No. 1 between 1986 and 1988, marks something of a turning-point in the modern history of Beethoven interpretation. Norrington uses period instruments, even when they sound rather strange to modern ears; he re-sits the orchestra according to the early 19th century pattern, thus making for a very transparent listening experience, with the second violins being particularly prominent on the right side of the proceedings; and he meticulously follows Beethoven's and/or Czerny's metronome markings, thus achieving tempi which are often a lot faster, but sometimes also a good deal slower than those generally used. The results are, for my mind, very convincing. Here is a Beethoven who, having 'received Mozart's spirit from the hands of Haydn', goes on to develop the symphony in ways only he could have done: here is a genius indeed, but not one who suddenly appeared from nothing.



I have commented positively on Norrington's interpretations of Symphonies 1 through 4 and 7 and 8 elsewhere, so I won't repeat myself here. The most famous of Beethoven's symphonies, 5, 6 and 9, are gathered on the last two Cds of this CD box and merit some further comment. In the 90's John Eliot Gardiner produced another 'period Beethoven' on Deutsche Grammophon Archiv, and it is fascinating to compare his efforts with Norrington. For my mind, the score is one-all on Symphonies 5 and 6. Norrington's Fifth captures more of the dramatic intent and uses the brass to wonderful effect; I felt that Gardiner's live recording was just a little too gentle. On the Sixth, however, Gardiner wins hands-down, with Norrington's 'Scene at the Brook' becoming tiresomely soporific. The birdsong flute is done so much better by Gardiner, and ditto the following thunderstorm. Norrington's Ninth starts off brilliantly, but gets a little bogged down towards the end. Not only does he deliberately keep to the somewhat doubtful metronome markings in the Scherzo, thus drawing it out to unheard-of lengths, but also his solo singers are rather pale and do not manage to convey the real depths of joy contained here. (I would expressly exclude the excellent Schütz Choir from this criticism.)



All in all, this 5-CD box offers wonderful value for money for anyone interested in hearing Beethoven as Beethoven actually wrote the music. But it is a moot point whether any listener would be completely satisfied with just this set. I suggest that, at the very least, you should get another version of the Sixth (Gardiner?) and the Ninth (Harnoncourt?) to be in Listener's Paradise."

Beethoven Symphonies At Their Best

Rachel Garret | Beverly Hills | 01/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What makes Sir Roger Norrington's conduction of the 9 Beethoven symphonies so unique and so great, some would say the greatest, is the fact that his orchestra, the London Classical Players, are more true to the original compositions of Beethoven. They are experts on playing period instruments and exactly the manner in which orchestras of Beethoven's day would have performed. Sir Roger Norrington is lesser known than the more recorded British conductor, Sir George Solti, who some would argue is superior, and is overshadowed by the podium tyrants- Arturo Toscanini, Herbert Von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwangler and Leonard Bernstein, each who have conducted all of Beethoven's symphonies. For a complete collection of Beethoven's symphonies, and for a truly striking, perfectionist take on the symphonic material, this is the box set to own. I am a music teacher and vocal coach, having also sung in the Ode To Joy chorus of Beethoven's 9th symphony. For me, this recording is beneficial, uplifting and historically valuable. Specialized recordings seem to draw listeners of classical music. There have been many "great recordings of the century", and avid buffs flock to the music stores in search of classic recordings by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra, while others prefer the 1951 Furtwangler performance of Beethoven's 9th at Bayreuth, a performance that was given directly after WWII, or the Leonard Bernstein after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. At the hands of Sir Roger Norrington, Beethoven's 9th is incredibly different, less pompous, but nevertheless glossy and full of melodic richness, particularily in the soulful, elongated third movement.The most impressive symphony on this recording is the Fifth. Sir Roger Norrington conducts an orchestra that perfectly captures the dramatic flair and conflict that Beethoven wrote in every line. The opening theme of the four staccato notes are more in lines of what Beethoven said about it himself- Fate knocking at the door. During WWII, the four notes in Morse Code equaled the letter V and stood for Allied Forces victory. The first movement is powerful, dramatic, a struggle between what seems small, frail beings againt overwhelming cosmic forces. The adagio movement is classically perfect, a musical coloration of every individual instrument makes a movement that is unforgettable. The last movement, the finale allegro, is exuberant and bombastic, the trumpets are extremely loud, the orchestra beats with triumph. The happy ending of the Fifth foreshadows the happy finale to the 9th, in my personal opinion, and its grandeur is epic, stratospheric in scale. It was the Fifth that officially marked Beethoven a star of the Romantic Era, and took his career in a more challenging direction.The 6th Symphony, Pastoral, is exquisite, the slowest in tempo of the symphonies, the most varied. It has a cheerful opening movement, and accurately describes an arrival at a sunlit countryside. Listening to the strings, the winds, and the rustling of the instruments, we feel involved in the action of the music. There is a change in time of day toward the end of the symphony. It is night, the serenity of the landscape fills the orchestra and the most sensitive listener, and the elegance of the strings are ethereal. The Seventh symphony has always been likened to a ballet. There is something dance-like in its beat, its music lines that leap and flow with a rhythm that can be indeed danced to. The allegretto movement is a mixture of funereal themes and a quasi-religious march, an inspirational music that is structured as perfectly as any classical symphony before Beethoven's day had been made. Beethoven was an admirer of Mozart, had studied as a boy during Mozart's day, but he strove to perfect music and to take it into newer levels. The Romantic Era born, Beethoven was free to compose music that has become the soundtrack of the human experience. In his symphonies we find the emotions, the darkness, the light, the hope, the spirituality that is everywhere and everyone at once. The loftiest humanitarian ideals compose the meat of Beethoven's music. Beethoven once composed a piece of music for a German prince. The anecdote goes something like this, and in this way, I will conclude: After the Prince sneered at Beethoven's music and said he genuinely disliked that piece and had heard better music in the past, Beethoven became furious, his hallmark temper was aroused. He took his music sheet and started for the door of the Prince's study room. Before he departed, he looked at the Prince and said, "Princes there will always be...but there will be only one Beethoven!.""