Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, René Leibowitz, New Symphony Orchestra of London :: Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7

Incredible sound

King Lemuel | Puyallup, WA | 01/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have all nine symphonies recorded in 1961 on VERY thick almost like 78s near mint vinyl on the audiophil Edition Phoenix label pressed in the early 1990s. The vinyl version has an extensive booklet that details all they went through in recording including what the engineers were up to. These were take no prisoners recording sessions.



The booklet details Leibowitz mastery of the Beethoven Symphonies including over 600 corrections he made to the score. This is similar to Abbado's comments in the documentary included with his DVD set. The Orchestra is the Royal Philharmonic, started by Beecham.



The other review mentions the brass. The booklet has pictures of players of 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, and 6 french horns. You can really hear everything played by the orchestra, but especially the brass.



The sound of the entire set is just incredible, even though this was originally an analog recording. The closest digital I am aware of is the outstanding BPO/Abbado live DVD/CD release from about 2001. I was instantly reminded of Leibowitz when I heard Abbado. The tempos are just as quick. The big difference between the two would be more brass sound with Leibowitz and more kettle drum percussion with Abbado. With all the talk about the new way of playing Beethoven, as was done by Abbado recently, Leibowitz got there first 45 years ago!



This has to be one of the great "sleeper" discoveries of all time! You may still be able to find it on vinyl at Musicstack or Ebay. Do your search under Leibowitz, Reader's digest beethoven, and Beethoven Treasury. Reader's digest released this set as a 7 lp symphony box and again as a 10 lp "Beethoven Treasury" set that includes some concertos, etc. I have also seen the 7 cd Beethoven's Treasury Reader's Digest at Ebay but they seem to be rare.



UPDATE:



I just ran across symphonies 1 to 4 and 6 posted at rhapsody, so if you are interested you can get a sampling. They are posted under reader's digest but also come up under Leibowitz."