Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Daniela Sindram :: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Skrowaczewski's Beethoven 9th is in the manner of Toscanini.

Alan Majeska | Bad Axe, MI, USA | 10/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Stanislaw Skrowaczewski's 2005 recording of Beethoven 9 with the Saarbrucken Radio Orchestra is in the manner of Toscanini rather than Furtwangler. Skrowaczewski favors fast tempi and light textures, which allow the individual voices to be heard more than in some recordings. I might suggest Skrowaczewski is taking a cue from the period instrument movement of Hogwood, Norrington, Gardiner, Bruggen, et al in his treatment of textures and quick tempos, but the sense in this well mastered Oehms recording is never one of "chamber Music" Beethoven. The strings sound light but not scrawny; the woodwinds are always pronounced where they have an important melody or motivic content.



II is one of the best I have ever heard: fast yet controlled and intense, and III is appropriately songful: faster than Furtwangler, but not nearly as fast as Norrington/ London Classical Players in their eye-rolling EMI recording (ca. 1989)! IV has some interesting touches, and makes you feel as through you're hearing this symphony for the very first time. The recording is very good: lean or rich and full, as the music demands.



I place this near the top of Beethoven 9 recordings I have heard, and I have many: Bernstein (Vienna and New York), Walter/Columbia, Ormandy,

Stokowski (Decca, stereo), Schmidt-Isserstedt/Vienna (Decca), Karajan (DG/1962), Bohm (Vienna DG: both 1970 and 1980), Szell/Cleveland (Sony),

Ferencsik, Muti (EMI), Sawallisch (Brilliant: EMI recording), Norrington,

Furtwangler (EMI Bayreuth, DG Vienna 1953, and Tahra Lucerne Philharmonia 1954), and Blomstedt/Dresden Staatskapelle (Brilliant: Eterna recording).



Unless you MUST have Furtwangler like intensity and massive textures, give Skrowaczewski/Saarbrucken a try. I plan to collect the whole cycle."