Search - Beethoven, Blomstedt :: Symphonies 5 & 6

Fifth is very good, Sixth is one of the very best.

laurence leabow | Simi Valley, Ca. | 01/15/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I bought the whole cycle as a boxed set(which was a little hard to find on Amazons site: if you search under BEETHOVEN/BLOMSTEDT it will not show, but if you search BEETHOVEN/9 SYMPHONIES it will be listed). I am very satisfied, especially for the price of around forty dollars. I didn't expect that the No.6 would establish itself as my current benchmark, but amazingly it sort of topples the very famous and very wonderful Karl Bohm/Vienna Philharmonic recording. Not by much, and it's not as if I'm going to ever part with the gorgeous, radiant Bohm, but the Blomstedt is as well played, has a somewhat firmer recorded sound and better bottom-end, and is just a little more masculine, if that means anything. If you really love this symphony you've got to have this but I'm not saying it's head and shoulders above everything.
I'll get back to you about the fifth symphony when I've listened a bit more. I noted the very tight playing and very detailed recording, strings especially, but also perhaps a certain dryness to the phrasing. I'm such a jerk when it comes to this work-if it isn't just right I just can't stand it. There needs to be a certain amount of "now hear this, this music is not like anything else you will ever hear" quality coming through or else it's just wasted tape. My reference recording is Giulini/LA Philharmonic, which might be a little slow in the second movement, or not, but is just staggering as an artistic achievement and as entertainment.
Other great performances in the Blomstedt cycle are the four, the two, and the eight. The four is the new champion in my collection, the two is not quite as zippy as Szell but better recorded, and the eight is second only(but what a gap!) to Karl Bohm."