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12.4.185.2
In Reply to: RE: Beethoven and Bohm posted by TGR on April 29, 2015 at 21:37:31
While I cannot comment personally on Bohm's interpretations, I have heard enough of the same comments about his style that echo your observations there. Most saying the same thing- plodding and boring. Unless I can score something along a similar price point, I don't think I'd be apt to jump.
Now if I could only find time to sit through the entire Toscanini set (I haven't, but am open to "spoiler alerts", as it were)! I'm sure that might be a great ride.
Dman
Analog Junkie
Follow Ups:
I recently listened to the Toscanini set, something I had been remiss about doing. I found a copy for the whopping total of $0.99.....not perfect, but $0.99?
I don't know if you have ever seen this book, but for the bicentennial (1970, of course), the late High Fidelity surveyed the available (at least generally available recordings in the US) of Beethoven....it almost seems naïve now - there were maybe 12 or 14 compete Beethoven sets surveyed. Paul Henry Lang had the assignment to review the symphonies. You can find used copies of this at Amazon, by the way. I wore out my original one, and recently got a new (to me) one that way. Interesting period reading.
At any rate, the Toscanini set was included, and after listening to the set, I think he fairly captured what is on the records, so that would give an even better idea than my capsule. The sound is highly variable, ranging from pretty OK in many cases to what sounds like a poor air-check in the 5th (an otherwise magnificent performance). I had the sense that this set of records did not always represent Toscanini at his best. The Pastorale doesn't really come off, for example. Lang says, correctly, that Toscanini misjudges the climax in the last movement.
Many of the symphonies are magnificent - for me, nobody has captured the essence of the 7th better than Toscanini - but his 36 NYPO recording is even better. The 5th is superb, but marred by poor sound. His 9th is really too fast, and doesn't allow the music to breathe, IMO (and many others hold this view as well). The 8th symphony is done extremely well, too.
Anyway, there are recordings that anyone with an interest in Beethoven need to hear, and this is certainly one. I would also include a smattering of Furtwangler in this, even though I despise his way with Beethoven. I have 3 recordings of his 9th.....as David Byrne asked "How did I get here?"
Maybe during the next long weekend or absence of D-Wife.
As it is right now, I can barely get a single LP in during the evenings, much less a double or multi-LP set.
Ah, the days of having too much time on my hands!
Dman
Analog Junkie
No fussiness, they just play the hell out of it. Trombones in the central part of the Scherzo are positively jolly, showing that Furt *can* smile once and awhile. Main body of 1st mov't is terrifying, slow mov't played SO much better than the classic EMI '51.
Wouldn't want to be without this one, though sound is pretty bad, not the excellent mono of the Legge years.
Probably the most intense 9th I have ever heard. Read somewhere that Goebbels and Himmler were there.
No, not one of the 3 I own - I have the @39 on the GCOTC (has the Eroica and the 5th as well), the Bayreuth, and the late Lucerne recording. To me they are all of a piece, which belies the reputation for spontaneity. OK, I AM very negative on his approach, and in this day and age....does it matter? Nope.
anyone else at this point. Reminds me so much of Schnabel playing the sonatas.
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