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This is my only copy of No. 7. Karajan/Berlin Philharmoniker
performance circa 1977. von K topped with white hair by this time. Recording qualities seems better than average for a DG Lp. Pretty good sense of clarity. Massed strings sound natural, not muddled like some DG recordings do.There is a thing about this symphony that keeps me coming back. Probably it is the same part that draws everybody back; the second movement (allegretto), is addictive. Karajan/ BPO play it something like a funeral dirge. For me it works quite nicely. Not because I like funerals. The music hits a combination of notes, in a rhythm that strikes cords within the human soul.
Beethoven. Truly a genius.
-Steve
Edits: 06/22/15Follow Ups:
old post, late response (been out of town)B 7 someone should acknowledge Dohnanyi Cleveland on Telarc, very good and wonderful sound. Oops, CD.
In my home, I have on LP
Szell Cleveland
Toscanini 1936
Cantelli
E Kleiber
C Kleiber
64 Karajan BPO
Jochum
Boehm VPO
Bernstein VPO
Klemperer mono
Klemperer stereoI need to get the modern ones CD
Vanka maybe
Haitink
Abbado DVD
etc.Having some experience, I still like the Dohnanyi CD. Power, rhythm, playing, subtlety, sound.
Edits: 06/26/15
nt
Awesome turntable!
While I am no expert, the 7th on Karajan's tulip box set is very enjoyable. The sound is very good too.
Dave
nt
...growing up in Manhattan, the Reiner/Chicago Symphony variant was the first LP he received to go with his "hifi" unit. Needless to say, that's how his love affair with classical (and later jazz) really started. Some time later, his family's apartment was broken into and his "hifi" and records were taken.
Fast forward to last year: when I heard this story, my first thought was "to the Internet!" I found a shaded dog copy, printed around the time he had his copy, and gave it to him for his birthday. To say he was surprised and elated would be an understatement. To top it off, later in the summer he came for a visit and we saw the Cleveland Orchestra perform it live at their summer outdoor facility (Blossom).
Karma.
I am a big fan of Fritz Reiner, and enjoy his interpretation of Beethoven.
Dave
My favorite 7th is Carlos Klieber
Alan
I say that only because you have just one version of this....you know, if you find one you like, why not? I bought the mid-70s Karajan set when it came out, and still have it, but haven't listened in a long time. Most listeners (including the powers that be at DG, since they keep reissuing it) seem to prefer the 60s set, but I recall that Harris Goldsmith, quite a perceptive critic IMO, preferred the 70s set, which is why I bought it. I need to listen to it again - I find quite a few things to admire in the early 60s set, but I do think the 7th is flawed by an overdriven 4th movement.
For me the one essential 7th has always been the Toscanini NYPO made in 1936. I am by no means a Toscanini fanatic - I think his set of Beethoven symphonies has many flaws and likely does not represent Toscanini at his best - but this performance, which I first heard over 40 years ago, still strikes me as the finest blend of the Apollonian and Dionysian that I've heard - listen to the coda in the first movement for example - never fails to send chills up my spine - and Toscanini avoids the way too common extreme slowdown for the trio of the Scherzo. Many conductors let it completely drag, instead of (IMO) reading the actual score.
The 50s Cantelli is pretty good too, as is Karajan's first effort on EMI with the Philharmonia. Bernstein's second Columbia recording (which was included in the box set) was another excellent effort.
Well, there are a ton, doubtless, great Beethoven 7ths. Congrats on finding one that brings home the genius of Beethoven to you!
BTW, Karajan's 5th from the 60s set is really good, and so is his Eroica and 9th. He fails in the Pastorale and the 8th symphonies, though.
It strikes me as more forceful. However, for the 6th and 7th i love the kleiber even if i do have it on the dreaded CD.
I am fond of Vanska performance on Bis, and surprisingly Haitink on LSO Live. Haitink's LSO Beethoven is vital and urgent, while his Brahms cycle on the same label is moribund and boring. Go figure.
and I also love the polar opposite Bohms and Wand's 7th.
You are right that most 7th are sort of meh due to many fall for the convention making the score expected. Personally I am finding out that I prefer the 8th altho it's not popular as the 7th.
I do not like most of Bohm's Beethoven but I do like his 7th.
n
(:~)
,
.
Perhaps my favorite of Beethoven's symphonies these days, although I prefer other recordings.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
I will always associate the slow movement with Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey." Dr. William Brantley, my professor in late Romantic poetry at the University of Florida (so many years ago), said he always thought of that movement when he read Wordsworth's line about "the still sad music of humanity / Nor harsh nor grating, tough of ample power / to chasten and subdue."
-Bob
Yeah. That's the feel of it.
Wordsworth: By the dates, he must have been close to the same age as Beethoven. But lived longer. An Englishman. Beethoven, a German. But music is a language everyone understands.
-Steve
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