Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Rafael Kubelik :: Mozart: Symphonie KV 551 "Jupiter"; Beethoven: Symphonie No. 3 "Eroica"

A Five Star Massive Performance of the "Eroica."

RENS | Dover, NH USA | 09/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have recordings of all nine of Beethoven's symphonies as performed under the leadership of Rafael Kubelik. This 1971 Salzburg Festival performance is Kubelik's only extant recording of Beethoven's 3rd, and it reveals aspects typical of Kubelik's artistry even as it also shows qualities not found in quite the same way or to the same degree in his other Beethoven recodings. This is a mighty, massive interpretation of the "Eroica." Tempi are at times very deliberate so as to emphasize the heroic struggle. I've never before heard the brutality of some of the great dissonant orchestral slashes in the first movement played with such vehemence. The effect is terrifying. At the same time, Kubelik, as always, has paid close attention to nuancing of phrasing and to the clarification of inner voices. The performance of the funeral march of the second movement is also quite weighty and very solemn, and at times the music bursts forth as if shaking a defiant fist in the face of death. Yet once again there is no lack of delicacy in the quieter passages. In the third movement, Kubelik emphasizes the contrast between the sections. The entire movement is a hunt on horseback in which the fleet strings alternate with the hunting horns. In the fourth movement Kubelik varies the tempo from one variation to the next much more than I am accustomed to hearing. He begins and ends the movement very deliberately; the full orchestral sound is massive even as the softer passages are clear and delicate. I rank this among the great recordings of the "Eroica" Symphony but it is unusual enough that I would advise that it not be the only recording of Beethoven's 3rd in one's library. For a first choice, one might look to the recording of Eugen Jochum and the Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam or to that of James Levine and the MET Orhestra, among others.



The performance of Mozart's 41st Symphony, called "Jupiter," is also brilliant. Kubelik must have used the full orchestra, since the overall sound is very big. Kubelik and the Vienna Philharmonic have the Mozartean sound and style in their blood, so the music dances in spite of the size of the orchestra. Kubelik's reading of this symphony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is lighter and fleeter and more dance-like.



This recorded concert took place in the Large Festival Hall, the size and acoustics of which may account for the richness of the Mozart and the intentionally weighted sound of the Beethoven. Throughout both of these performances Kubelik and the Vienna Philharmonic breathe and move as one being and present a perfect melding of great musicianship."