Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Kurt Masur, New York Philharmonic :: Beethoven: Symphony No. 5; Egmont, Incidental Music

Bad Sonics, Bad Interpretation -- judging just by Egmont Ove

Mark A. Weiss | Germantown, MD United States | 11/29/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I promptly got rid of this CD. The sonics are atrocious. Thin and overly contrasty with pierce-your-ears treble on louder portions. The Egmont is poorly done too. No meaning. Grind-thru and then pierce-your-ears on the loud parts. What a dissapointment. This NY Philharmonic was nothing like the PBS live TV broadcast of the NY Philharmonic in mid 2006 doing the Egmont. The other reviewer (to date) also hated this CD. Don't buy it!"

Is Kurt Masur a Zombie Working Undercover as a Conductor?

dv_forever | Michigan, USA | 09/24/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I don't mean to be too harsh on Masur, I'm sure he's made some decent recordings here and there. I don't think he's ever done anything truly special though. Let's take a quick a look at this terrible performance of Beethoven's immortal 5th Symphony. The first movement is not slow, it times at 7:29, a reasonable moderate tempo, not slow and not fast. Karajan and Kleiber's versions of the 5th are only like 15 seconds faster, but why are they so much better than Masur? Because Masur instills absolutely no energy or rhythmic bite in his interpretation, it's so damn boring, all the way through. The later movements are just as bad, I can't possibly listen to this recording when I have Karajan, Kleiber or the outstanding Giulini versions sitting near by on my shelf. Masur even takes the extra repeat in the scherzo, like a few period-instrument conductors do. This additional scherzo repeat is completely unnecessary, especially in this lifeless, plodding performance. With the extra scherzo repeat the movement becomes an agonizingly long 8:19 instead of the usual 5:20 or so. The finale has one or two nice things basically in the development section but overall Masur is too timid, too meek, too uninvolved. This music should burn like molten lava, instead Masur can't even raise it to room temperature! Please listen to Karajan instead.



The Egmont Incidental Music as played by Masur sounds better, more involved, but not by much. The overture is pretty slack, Masur omits most of the narration in the incidental music, we simply get to hear a bit of it on the penultimate track, number 13, before the reprise of the victory music. There is no sustained buildup here of the narrator's words leading us into the victory music like on the Abbado or Szell versions. Masur takes the road traversed by Karajan in his 1969 recording of the Egmont Incidental Music which also omits most of the narration. I do however have to point out that the soprano, Sylvia McNair sings wonderfully on the two songs, truly with a sense of drama and injects plenty of life into this Masur performance, she almost redeems it. If only Masur could do the same, we would have a winner on our hands. Please stick to Karajan, Kleiber or Giulini in the Beethoven 5th and get George Szell's version of the Complete Egmont Incidental Music if you are interested in this oustanding score. Szell gives it quite a performance."

I can only agree; this is a lousy performance

Joanna Daneman | Middletown, DE USA | 11/02/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I was driving home the other day, listening to Beethoven's Eroica on XM radio. I was at first thrilled; my favorite Beethoven symphony. Then, I was not so thrilled, as the performance was a heap of mush punctuated by a few bloops of the horns, reminding me of a snoring fat guy, who occasionally snorts loudly then resumes his rhythmic burbling. It was a performance by Kurt Masur. Better not purchase that one, oof!



Then, when I got home, I decided to listen to more Beethoven, and pulled out a random recording of the Fifth because it was the first one I found in my library. Put it on. Ack! The burbling, snoring giant was back. Bwah-bwah-bwah-duuuuuh. Uck. Looked at the recording, lo, it was Herr Kapellmeister Masur again. Huh! This guy has a long and stellar career with international recognition, yet manages to annoy me twice in one week?



I got this recording for the solo by Sylvia Nair, because the vocals in Egmont really add to the exciting overture. But I cannot recommend this performance as conducted by Masur. Other reviewers have thoroughly gone into the evils of this performance and I agree with them.



There are plenty of better versions of both these Beethoven works, despite Nair's gorgeous voice, I'd suggest looking (and listening) elsewhere. I'd give it ONE star but Nair earns the second one on her own."