Beethoven, Van L.: Symphonies Nos. 3, "Eroica" And 8 (Minnesota Orchestra, Vanska)

After listening to Vanska's recording of the ninth symphony, I was looking forward to this disc immensely. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with many of the reviews I have read online about this disc - I personally found it very much a mixed bag.

We very nearly have here an excellent Eroica, in excellent sound but it just falls short. The pace of the first movement is nicely judged, with an awareness of period practice in phrasing and speeds - this is not Beethoven's symphony transformed into a Wagnerian music-drama but neither is it lacking in weight and seriousness. The funeral march too is as good a performance as I have heard and the fugal section in the middle is extremely moving; the precision Vanska elicits from the Minnesota Orchestra and the clarity of the BIS recording reaps dividends here, with every line clear from the start; but there is a passion here too, as well as accuracy, which lends this movement a searing sense of mourning. The scherzo is also played well, marvellously fleet strings and ringing horns. I didn't feel the finale flowed as well as it could do, I think because Vanska takes the dynamic markings to extremes - for me this made parts of the finale sound a little choppy and ruined the sense of line.

On the subject of dynamic extremes, there is one disconcerting instance that actually really spoils the otherwise excellent first movement for me. When the horn signals the arrival of the recapitulation, it is does so at an incredibly low volume - I wasn't sure if it was even there at all the first time I played the disc and wondered if I had bought a CD that should have been recalled due to a bad edit. Of course, the wide dynamic range provided by BIS accentuates this and it may well be that as a `coup de theatre', it could work in a concert hall, one-off situation. On disc, it merely seems wilfully eccentric; it disrupts the flow of the music and tension drops, robbing the recapitulation of its impact.

It was mainly for the Eroica that I purchased this disc, and it IS an interesting, and at times moving, experience and a performance that I will listen to regularly, despite my caveats. I think Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1-9, are more successful overall though, even if the sound quality isn't as pristine.

I can't say that Vanska's performance of the eighth symphony is one I will return to at all. The orchestra are impeccably neat as we have come to expect from this cycle, but I think that this performance is one of the most strait laced I have heard. And that is a shame in a symphony that is bursting with Beethoven's boisterous and Olympian humour at its best. The first movement in particular feels laboured, but there is a singular lack of charm and warmth throughout. This is a far cry from Norrington and the London Classical Players, Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1-9; Overtures, in their infectious and beautifully recorded version (which won a Gramophone award on its release).

If you can, I would try to listen to at least a couple of the movements from this disc before you purchase it - perhaps the first movements of each symphony. There is some great playing here, but there is also too much idiosyncrasy for me to recommend it wholeheartedly.

This completes my purchases from this wonderful series. I never set out to buy a new Beethoven symphony set, and certainly not a full priced one, but these accounts have really got me: they are something special. I still love other accounts and the Harnoncourt set but ...

Vanska's Eroica is deeply impressive, exciting and moving. It may become my favourite version. It has all you expect from a great Eroica and that special Vanska-Beethoven magic, too, of course. And his 8th is full of joy and spirit but somehow there is still space for a sense that "the storm" is not so far away.

Buy this record - buy the whole series. There will never be definitive versions of these works but to get a whole series of really special ones is something that I had never expected until now.