|
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 8 |  | Creators: Ludwig van Beethoven, George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $6.98
Buy New: $3.95
as of 11/27/2009 09:09 CST details
You Save: $3.03 (43%)
New (20) Used (5) from $3.95
Seller: moviemars
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 32195
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 89832
UPC: 696998983229
EAN: 0696998983229
ASIN: B00005YJSK
Release Date: January 29, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Tracks:
| • | Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Eroica'), Op. 55: Allegro con brio | | • | Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Eroica'), Op. 55: Marcia funebre, Adagio assai | | • | Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Eroica'), Op. 55: Scherzo, Allegro vivace | | • | Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Eroica'), Op. 55: Finale, Allegro molto | | • | Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93: Allegro vivace e con brio | | • | Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93: Allgretto scherzando | | • | Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93: Tempo di Meneutto | | • | Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93: Allegro vivace |
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 Szell, hard-driven? You've got to be kidding. If anything, he's rather tame March 5, 2009
Discophage (France)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
See my detailed review under the disc's previous outing, Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 3 "Eroica" & 8. Those who think this recording from 1962 of the 8th is a great version should listen to Leibowitz (Beethoven: Symphonies 6 & 8) or Scherchen (Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 6 "Pastorale" & Symphony No. 8). There they will hear the irresistible ebullience, the explosive exuberance which to me is the gist of Beethoven - and even when it is, like here, late Beethoven. Theirs is not the massive, powerful, grand and overbearing Beethoven of Szell and tradition but one that exults with joy - and Beethoven will soon compose a famous ode to it, right?
Szell's 1958 Eroica is better. Again, those who find it "hard driven" need to cleanse their ears of the Furtwängler/Klemperer/Böhm tradition and go back to the score. I won't even refer to the controversial metronome marks that Beethoven later added - so, OK, it was years after the composition, and he was deaf. And his metronome was defective? And he didn't know how to use it? You bet. Esteemable musicians, who otherwise profess the utmost and most humble allegiance to the composer's intentions, are incredibly imaginative when it comes to finding reasons for NOT doing what a composer has written if their pre-conceptions dictates that they don't. They call it the "spirit" and say that it doesn't lie in the letter. How convenient.
But just take the tempo indications : "Allegro con brio" (first movement), "Allegro vivace" (scherzo), "Allegro molto" (finale). Mind you: NOT "allegro ma non troppo", or "allegro moderato", or "moderato". How faster can you get? What should Beethoven have written, if he had wanted these movements to be played really fast (like his metronome marks indicate): "Allegro precipitoso possible"?
But that's how tradition goes: we have such an ingrained knowledge of how it SHOULD sound, that we don't even look at the scores anymore (or when we do, invent the most imaginative excuses NOT to observe them). We don't realize that a certain tradition is exactly like the patina of those beautiful Michelangelo frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome: just accumulated dirt, the conservators will tell you. Take off the dirt, what comes out: colors that seem incredibly crude and gaudy - but, pace the indignant and horrified traditionalists, that's exactly how the artist wanted them.
So, if anything, Szell's Eroica is not hard-driven ENOUGH. That's true especially of the first movement. While the tempo is suitably brisk, what Szell is missing and that Toscanini (Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3), Bernstein in New York (Symphony 3 " Eroica "), Scherchen (see above) and Leibowitz (Symphonies No. 1 & 3) all have is a muscularity of accents, a power and intensity of the brass utterances. With them, Beethoven is ebullient, explosive, teeming with energy and excitement. With Szell, he is more civilized - and I am tempted to say: less genuinely Beethovenian. Szell takes the funeral march at a solid, moderate tempo (very close in fact to Toscanini's and Bernstein's) but his reading stands out by the crispness of articulation of the bass and the muscularity of accents, although its less biting and glaring brass fail to invest it with as much high-octane drama as Toscanini's. On the other hand he takes the scherzo faster than Beethoven's metronome and consequently imparts it an uplifting ebullience. He launches in the finale with superb turbulence and his theme and variations develop with fine tautness and muscularity and a fire again reminiscent of Toscanini, although both are significantly slower than Beethoven's metronome here and, like everybody else before Norrington, Szell takes the traditional view (not to say that it isn't convincing in its own right) of the "poco andante" section starting at 6:18 - eg slow, developing to a majestic and grandiose climax. His coda is exhilaratingly boisterous.
Ultimately, this is a Beethoven for those who don't like their Beethoven too radical - either way: Klemperer/Furtwängler or Scherchen/Norrington (and be aware that I DON'T find Toscanini here nearly as radical as his reputation). I am one to think that Beethoven not too radical isn't entirely Beethoven. Still Szell's Eroica would have been a truly excellent one had he given a little more snap to the accents in the first movement. Excellent sonics.
 HARD TO IMAGINE. . . April 17, 2008
T. Bellows
...a 3rd that's played just right - as this one is. Absolutely fine, fine art!
(Also, David Zinman's CDs of all 9 symphonies are wonderful. And his 3rd, of course. A bargain that really sounds damn good all through. Hard to believe he brought it off.)
Spit and Polish April 5, 2008
Phillip Sorensen (Poole, Dorset, England)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I find that many Americans get excited about Szell/Cleveland recordings from 40 years ago but fewer Europeans do! These recordings do not bear repeated listening as they are fast and accurately played but little more. Having said that, Szell was at his best as an accompanist on earlier major concerto recordings such as Dvorak/Casals and Brahms/Curzon and there was a much better Beethoven 5 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete Egmont with the VPO from the 1960 which I still enjoy. My real 'treasure' is Weingartner in his pre-War recordings but for better sound there is Klemperer, about whom many Americans miss the point. He did decline after he was 70 in 1955 and became too slow as a result of illnesses but grab the well-recorded mono 3, 5 and 7 from 1955 which are faster, very plain but highly musical with great attention to the overall architecture of the score. There is even an early stereo version of the 7 but there is a nice academic debate over whether the mono takes are in fact better played! For those interested in history there are a Klemperer 1 and 8 (the latter twice!) from the days of the Weimar Republic, a Los Angeles 5 from 1934 and 5 and 6 with the VSO around 1950. Of course, these are not slow at all.
Very entertaining March 6, 2007
M.M.
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I can't compare this 3rd Symphony to other classic recordings, as I have not heard them. However I can say that it is performed seemingly flawlessly. The french horns deserve some kind of medal for their part in the 4th movement!
 Mostly wonderful for the playing January 3, 2007
Santa Fe listener
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I expected Dzell's Eroica to be taut and swift, with rather thin recorded sound (he never got the best sonics from Epic Records), and absolute orchestral precision. All those things are here. One day Sony must get around to remastering Szell's Sixties Beethoven cycle. It's much more disciplined that Bruno Walter's with the Columbia Sym. but less stirring than Bernstein's with the NY Phil.
Now for a confession: I didn't listen to this account of the Eroica with much interest. Contrary to other reviewers, Szell's interpretation isn't sweeping, vehment, or (to my ears) powerful. It's correct and classical. If you preefer such an approach, which is about as faar from Furtwangler as one can get, this CD will please you. I kept missing dozens of opportunities for expression, dynamic contrast, and drama. The funeral march, for intance, is particularly dry-eyed and at points chirpy. The Eighth fares better from Szell's classicism, being a lighter, more 'feminine' work. But even here, amid all the precision, one wants some humor, a sense of high spirits that never emerges. My four stars is an average between five for execution and three for inspiration.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
|
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
| |
