Beethoven: Egmont Overture; Symphony No.9 [Extra tracks]

I bought this thinking there must be a reason DG is reissuing it in addition to the Karajan 1963 version, they must have thought it has some merit. It does, and I favor it over all the Karajan editions, over everything I have (Stokowski, Furtwangler, Klemperer, Bernstein, Blomstedt, Sinopoli/DG, Muti, Walter - yes even the NYPO version)except Schmidt-Issterstedt (Decca). I was amazed. Its the rhythim, the caring about every note, the balance, the dynamics, the lack of acceleration/deceleration that many conductors indulge in, and the sound of St-Hedwigs Kathedrale choir. Each note is shaped with more care than Karajan (1963). The choir sounds more natural than Karajan's choir. On the minus sides there is tape hiss, and a few dropouts in the first movement, but only 2 and for a very short duration. And yet I have not seen a previous review of this in any publication including Penguin. Even Stereophile's Choral symphony roundup (June 1990) did not include this version (1957). A top version, if I were to be allowed only 2, it would be this and the Schmidt-Issertedt/VPO version (Decca). I would advise getting it before DG deletes it, Fricsay is not as famous as Karajan. This must be released in the USA, I hope someone from Universal will hear this.

I cannot but wholeheartedly share my colleagues' enthusiasm for this recording. I grew up with it (and, in fact still own the original 2-LP red album shown in this CD's cover, numbered by DGG -yes, back then they had an extra "D" in their name- as 138002/3 SLPM, one of their very first essays in the then novel stereophonic technology) and it still remains very close to me. Besides the 9th Symphony and the Egmont Overture presented in this reissue, the original release included an excellent rendition of the Leonora Overture No. 3, left out now (I suppose) so that a second CD would not be needed. The CD's higher transfer volume helps in bringing the sound closer to the listener (DGG apparently having decided to play it safe when their engineers cut the LPs' masters in 1958) and conferring to it an immediacy and transparency new to me whilst preserving its beautiful tone.

There's not much I can add to what has been written by others in this site, apart perhaps that by 1957 the Berlin Philharmonic still was very much, staff-wise, what it was under Furtwangler and it shows in this recording's sonority. After all, the grand old man had died scarcely 3 years before these works were put into tape, Karajan had just taken over the orchestra as chief conductor and the lean, muscular and to-the-point sound that became characteristic under his long regime was still two or three years into the future. Karajan took to rotate the orchestra's musicians fairly often, far more often actually than was customary with his predecessors and the results of the first shake-up became apparent when in 1962 the same company presented the first of Karajan's three Beethoven symphony cycles he'd record with them, when the orchestra's new virtuosity surprised critics the world over (Karajan had in his record a prior Beethoven symphony cycle, made for EMI during the fifties with the Philharmonia Orchestra). But what we get here, and in fine early stereophony, is the grand old sonority of the orchestra, the one that still had links to the pre-war years but which soon enough would evolve into an instrument capable of aweing its audiences under their new and starry conductor on account of its virtuosity and perfection.

But Fricsay's interpretations differ greatly from Furtwangler's. There is a tautness of approach, a more modern focusing on architecture that does not look back in time as much of Furtw'ngler's work did (but splendidly so, I must add), embedded as it was on german romanticism, but decidedly centres in our own time. Fricsay's approach to the Symphony's 4th movement is as modern as the late fifties allowed to, marking a singular kind-of-extrapolated cue to today's "historically aware" presentations, and DGG feted him with an outstanding quartet of vocal soloists. Yes, the 3rd movement is slow, perhaps harking back to the grand old man's ways but Fricsay gave us lessons of tempo handling in the first and second movements that have nothing to do with Furtwangler's fluctuations, an approach decidedly his, full of musicianship and with a solid grasp of the beethovenian language. So it is also in the performance of the Egmont Overture which fortunately made its way to the disc.

Yes, cancer robbed us of an immensely talented conductor who probably would have rivalled Karajan (who was but a few years his senior) during much of the second half of the 20th Century. What would have become of Fricsay's career is anybody's guess, as is the case with other conductors (like Cantelli, for example) whose careers were cut short by untimely death, but mind you, if you decide to buy this disc you will end up with one of the finer recordings this warhorse has had ever.

A must for all Beethoven lovers!

Once again this recording made afirms my beliefs that Fricsay deserves his place among legends such as Toscanini, Furtwängler or Klemperer (with great awe to all conductors not mentioned).
The clarity of the conducting, each tone where it should be, and the tempi... ah the tempi, a joy and delight to my ears. The best Presto I have ever heard, being on the verge of sheading tears throughout the movement... and I thought that I had heard the 9.th before!

It must be heard, since no words can describe the work of a genious such as Beethoven, conducted by the brilliant Fricsay backed by the BPO, 4 remarkable soloists and an utter most natural singing by the St. Hedwig-Cathedral Choir.

If Klemperers Fidelio/Solemnis, or Giulini's Don Giovanni has a speciall place in you heart, this will be the main vein.