Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra :: Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 [Hybrid SACD]

Improved Sound, but the Performances Remain Short of the Bes

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 11/07/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Beethoven's first two symphonies, dating from the very start of the 19th century, are attractive works displaying distinct charateristics of his more dramatically achieved later symphonies. The first goes well beyond Haydn in harmonic daring and offers us our first look at one of Beethoven's great formal creations, the symphonic scherzo. The second symphony tends to be overlooked by many; indeed, the great German conductor and champion of Beethoven symphonies, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cared little for the Beethoven 2nd Symphony, rarely performing it and when he recorded it may not have approved the recording's release. However, it's an engaging work, with a full, robust quality permeated by that uninhibited range of energy common to all of Beethoven's best orchestral music.



Herbert von Karajan, who succeeded Furtwängler as head of the Berlin Philharmonic, recorded all the Beethoven symphonies, and did so many times. These particular recordings are from his second complete set, in 1963. (Karajan had previously recorded all the Beethoven symphonies with Britain's Philharmonia Orchestra in the fifties under producer Walter Legge for EMI.) The DG engineers have reprocessed this stero recording for the SACD format, and the sound is a marked improvement, whether played on a regular Cd or using a SACD player and set-up.



The performance of the first, while showcasing superb orchestra control and direction by Karajan, suffers from a certain lack of gracefulness, with Karajan driving the orchestra a bit too fully and aspiring to a rather larger scaled vision than the work comfortably accomodates. There remains, too, some lacking of instrumental coloring, a charming quality in this work, and one better possible to hear in the many original instrument versions of the symphony. Karajan seems to me more successful overall in Beethoven's second symphony, though again a certain flatness in the instrumental details comes through, possibly the result of the smooth, overly homongenized orchestral sound Karajan favors.



If you're curious to sample a single 1963 Karajan Beethoven recording with improved SACD sound it would probably be better to first try the Beethoven Symphonies 3 and 4. Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 [Hybrid SACD] The set with the Beethoven 5th Symphony should be avoided - joined at the hip with a hopelessly wrong Pastorale. Perhaps the Beethoven 9th SACD hybrid, slightly cheaper, Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 [Hybrid SACD] would make a nice pairing with the 3rd and 4th for someone who already owns these works in a previous incarnation, and balks at the high price for the entire set."