Beethoven and Bohm

Posted by TGR (A) on April 29, 2015 at 21:37:31

A few months ago, a poster on this forum waxed lyrical about the Beethoven symphony set conducted by Karl Böhm, a set I had never heard but have always been curious about. In the way these things sometimes work, a few weeks later I found a good used copy at a record store for $4.99 and figured how could I lose?

I have been working my way through this set over the past few weeks, and I have to express that my opinion varies substantially from the original poster. Let me say first that before this my only exposure to Böhm's Beethoven was his recording of Fidelio, which I didn't find that impactful (my touchstone for this work is the Klemperer). His recording of Mozart's 39th symphony meant a lot to me in my youth, but I was very disappointed with his celebrated Wagner Ring, which I found lacking in repose. In other words, I couldn't be classed as a major fan.

I worked through the symphonies one by one, and in general, I found Böhm's rhythms to be what I would call square, without real inflection, his tempos overly measured and old-fashioned, and he does not, IMO, elicit first class execution from the VPO. He is not helped by the sound, which is mediocre at best.

Some specific examples: Listen to the horn playing in the trio of the scherzo of the Eroica - Böhm slows the tempo way down, but the horns still sound like they are gurgling instead of executing cleanly. Or the storm in the Pastorale, where he covers the theme with secondary material. Or the introduction to and tenor solo in the 9th, where he plods. Or the entire first symphony, which to me is completely infected with "square rhythm." One of the posters on this board, who owns something like 60 complete sets of the Beethoven symphonies, calls Böhm boring - I would concur. After making it through the 4th, I was about to give up this particular journey - but decided to carry on.

Actually I found that symphonies 5-8 were better than what came before, although I had problems here and there (the overly exaggerated almost completely static tempo for the trio of the 7th's scherzo is beyond the pale, although the remainder of the symphony is not too bad).

Surprisingly for me, the one performance that worked from start to finish was the 5th - even though Böhm adopts a glacial tempo in the scherzo, somehow it seemed powerful instead of turgid, and the 4th movement blazes to a glorious finish. The 6th is pretty good until the storm, where, as mentioned Böhm covers the theme with secondary material, and then is back to square rhythms as he concludes. The 9th is variable, with a poor first movement, an interesting scherzo, a slow movement that alternates between grace and clumsiness, and a mostly slow finale. Not the worst 9th I've heard (that plum goes to Ansermet for a completely unidiomatic reading and terrible orchestral execution), but well below average.

I know others may feel differently, and you're welcome to your views. Hurwitz thinks this set is better than the Karajan DG recordings - I don't agree, even though those sets aren't my first choice. He believes it was buried somewhat by the coming of the Karajan DG II and then the Bernstein. DG also did the Kubelik set around that time as well - they were loaded with recordings of Beethoven symphonies.

My view is that there are way more interesting recordings of the Beethoven symphonies. Yes, my first choice would be Szell, followed by Vänska on SACD, but I also like the Walter stereo set, which shares some of the old-fashioned characteristics of the Böhm with far more enlivening playing. There are, no doubt, loads of others.

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Topic - Beethoven and Bohm - TGR 21:37:31 04/29/15 (8)

RE: Beethoven and Bohm - docw 13:13:37 04/30/15 (0)

Great thoughts... - Dman 05:50:09 04/30/15 (6)

Spoiler alert! More on Toscanini - TGR 08:25:13 04/30/15 (5)

Noted.. I will have to give them a listen... - Dman 09:44:59 04/30/15 (0)

Have you heard Furtwangler's '42 9th? - jdaniel@jps.net 08:38:58 04/30/15 (3)

RE: Have you heard Furtwangler's '42 9th? - semuta 12:33:59 04/30/15 (0)

RE: Have you heard Furtwangler's '42 9th? - TGR 10:26:15 04/30/15 (1)

In the end--as I've mentioned before--Scherchen sets my foot tapping in the Beethoven Symphonies more than - jdaniel@jps.net 18:16:50 04/30/15 (0)

Beethoven and Bohm

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