Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Joseph Haydn, Jascha Horenstein :: Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"; Haydn: Symphony No. 101

My favorite "Eroica" of the analog and pre-period eras

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 08/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"They say Kiev-born Jascha Horenstein (1898-1973) was an acquired taste since he never held the helm at a big name symphony and did most of his conducting in an epoch with the likes of Bernstein in New York, Karajan in Berlin, Szell in Cleveland, Solti in Chicago, Bohm in Vienna, the young & dynamic Mehta in Los Angeles, Boult in London...you get the picture. How could anyone even locate the guy?



The answer was through the low-priced LP, or long-playing record, or 33 1/3 RPM recording, the venue through which most of us made Horenstein's acquaintance in the 1960s and 1970s. Horenstein made many records just like this one -- big name repertoire using a pickup band that Vox could afford to pay (in this case the German radio orchestra in Baden-Baden) -- that were among its staple of symphonic orchestras during those years.



Aside from outstanding execution and near flawless classical approach, there is nothing individual about this recording. It does not contain the electric charge that made the famous Kleiber Beethoven Symphony No. 5 so special. Nor does it have the uniqueness of Bruno Walter's Beethoven "Pastoral" symphony. Neither does it reach the zenith of the Richter-Munch collaboration of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1.



It also contains none of the debits of those recordings -- Kleiber's too over the top approach in the Symphony No. 7, Walter's re-recorded SACD version costing more than $20, and Munch coming on like gangbusters while Richter is all poetry. In fact, it will be difficult to find a single debit in this wonderful and fully-filled CD of orchestral favorites.



No, all this has going for it is the best common denominator among recorded Eroicas of the age, with an equally well-played and classically-shaped Haydn "Clock" symphony thrown in as an added bonus on CD (I first owned the Beethoven on a Vox cassette.) I never heard a better performance of Eroica in the analog era than the one on this recording and that includes Bernstein, Walter, Solti, Karajan and Szell. It wasn't until the period movement came along that I perked up to new ways with Eroica.



The recordings from 1957 still sound wonderful today although you won't mistake them for super audio or the super audio version of quadrophenia. Still, they are eminently playable and lend an ear to the best voice anyone gave Beethoven in the analog era."

A blast from my past

Paul S. | Oakland, California | 04/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I got the Vox LP of this Eroica for $1.99 in 1974 because I was a starving student starting a music collection on the cheap. Many times since then, I've wondered why big-name performers on full-priced CDs don't move me the way my worn-out Vox LP always did. It wasn't just bias in favor of the familiar (or my advancing age): I listened for years to another acclaimed rendition that still leaves me cold. What a joy to find this CD and feel the power of Horenstein's inspired performance!



The other reviews are right on (or "groovy," in 1974): this Eroica is extraordinary. The Haydn isn't bad. I hope to live comfortably with the minor sonic deficiencies of this CD for another 34 years. Save a few decades and buy it for yourself."