Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6 [Original recording reissued]

I agree entirely with the previous reviewer. The 5th is particularly brilliant in this recording. It conveys the drama, poignancy and sheer power of the symphony without descending into the bombastic overstatements that often mar Beethoven recordings. This is no mean feat for a symphony whose opening movement has been largely rendered a musical cliche, so much so that it can sound either pretentious or hollow, depending on the interpretation. Not so here -- Claudio Abbado gets it just right.

This CD is yet another splendid disk from Claudio Abbado's critically acclaimed Beethoven Symphony cycle with the Berliner Philharmoniker which Deutsche Grammophon recorded earlier this decade. Using the then new Barenreiter Edition edited by Jonathan Del Mar, Abbado cleverly reconsidered his interpretations of all of Beethoven's symphonies, opting for brisk tempi and leaner musical textures. Traditionalists may complain that these performances sound as if Beethoven's music was composed by Haydn and Mozart, and yet they fail to realize how much both composers had influenced greatly Beethoven's own compositions. So I honestly don't think that these critics have made a valid criticism, especially when Beethoven is regarded by many as the last of the great Classical composers and the first of the Romantics.

Without a doubt, Abbado's interpretations of both symphonies were truly revolutionary, attempted only once before by David Zinman in his critically acclaimed cycle with the Tonhalle Orchestra. However, here, the Berliner Philharmoniker truly rises to the occasion as the best symphony orchestra in the world, offering exquisite, exhilirating performances of both works (For example, I am not troubled at all by having pauses between each note in the opening measures of the Fifth Symphony's first movement; instead both Abbado and the Berliners are adhering correctly to Beethoven's own metronome marks, which Del Mar emphasized in his edited edition of these scores.). Even with the recent release of Bernard Haitink's critically acclaimed recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra on its LSO Live label, this splendid recording of both symphonies still should be regarded as among the new definitive recordings of both using the Barenreiter Edition.

Four decades separate Karajan's classic Beethoven Fifth with the Berlin Phil. from 1962 and the new one from Abbado. In between we've had the historical performance revolution and a new critical edition from del Mar. Abbado, never a great Beethoven conductor in the past, found religion, he says, and rethought the symphonies in light of new practices. Has it made a big difference?

Yes and no. The opening of the first movement, which includes the most famous five bars in classical music, sounds quite different. Karajan was a modernist in his day, and when he performed the famous da-da-da DUM motif, he didn't pause overlong between each statement or draw out the culminating fermata, or held note. Abbado, however, gives us no pause, and instead of swelling at the end of the DUM for dramatic effect, he actually softens and falls away. One gets the sense of a single long phrase, not a repeated theme chopped into dramatic slices.

The first movement isn't appreciably faster than Karajan's, but the textures are much lighter--this is more apparent live than on recordings. The Berlin Phil. sounds sizable here whereas in concert the reduced forces are very evident. The other movements don't sound as different. The Andante con moto is tkaen too fast by Abbado and comes off as an allegro, while the Scherzo is repeated enitrely, making it twice as long, another mistake since we are robbed of the marvelous tension between this brief, mysterious transition and the explosive finale--mysteries wear out the second time around. The finales from Karajan and Abbado sound identical and have nearly identical tempos, except that Karajan skips the exposition repeat.

In terms of sound, the remastered Karajan in SACD more than keeps up with the Abbado, which admittedly has less glare at loud volume. However, this advantage is offset because the orchestra is set so far back that you have to turn the volume up quite high, which in itself brings about more glare and glassiness.

In all, I would say this performance is half a step ahead of Karajan's. There are new things about this Abbado Fifth--it's leaner and more compact. However, the same heroic spirit breathes through both performances, and I'm grateful to own them both.