Search - Beethoven, Blomstedt :: Symphonies 2 & 4

I don't think you can do better.

laurence leabow | Simi Valley, Ca. | 01/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is very good music-making. The forth symphony has never sounded so big. Benchmark recordings like Bruno Walter/Columbia, and Karl Bohm/VPO are quite nearly left behind in this performance. The first movement of the symphony always prompts members of my household to comment of the gleeful quality of the music when they hear me playing it, and the Blomstedt certainly is the same happy music, but here it has such a heft to it that a dimension is certainly added. This is partially due to the recording which is very full, but also the manner in which it is performed. The playing is very high caliber and very balanced, perhaps lacking some of the "effortless stylishness" of the Vienna Philharmonic and the "certain something (sentimentality?)" that the classic Walter recording has, but you really can't fault it in any way.
The No.2 can only be faulted if you think that it sounds too full in the orchestration, and believe that being earlier and more akin to Mozart, it should be lighter in sound, because it is otherwise perfect. Enjoy."