Search - Beethoven, Zander :: Symphony 9

More Wizardry from Zander

Andrew M. Klein | Washington, DC USA | 12/03/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is getting repetitious. I've praised to the stars Zander's versions of Mahler's Ninth and his remarkable new performances of Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh, all with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Now, even though he's conducting something less than a first class orchestra (pros, semi-pros and students, a someone else succinctly put it), chorus and soloists, I must do the same for this insightful, inspiring reading of Beethoven's Ninth. Once again, the secrets are in letting us hear all the notes, not just some of them (supressing some to emphasize this or that conventional reading and perception of what's "important"), in Zander's self-deprecating obedience to the Master's own metronome markings -- something others, for whatever reason, feel free to alter -- and in Zander's incredible way of balancing all of the parts. The overall effect is gripping and remarkable. It may take two or three listenings to follow this "new-sounding" way of playing the Ninth, to jetison what you've become used to over the years, and to take it all in, particularly the parts that seem, at first, too quickly played, but which will later seem exactly right. After the listener is past that, it becomes possible to focus on what you may never have properly heard before -- the violins, for example, in the third movement (thinner than what one would hope for and could expect from a world class orchestra, but good enough) playing all the notes so that you can hear them, as opposed to leaving you suspecting that violin notes might have been played there, all in crystal clear definition. Here Zander shows us how to follow Beethoven's thinking as a whole, not just his sentences. Zander somehow gets his players and singers to reveal the music, rather than interpret it -- to play it as it was written and convincing us that this surely was how it was conceived. This is wizardry. Another must buy!"

Revolutionary!

ken yong | Kuala Lumpur | 12/20/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For Beethoven fans spoilt in the tradition of Furtwangler, Klemperer, Zander's handling comes as outright brash and rough. Indeed quite a characteristic of Beethoven himself as even Furtwangler's handling comes quite as a blasphemy to this great master himself. Furtwangler's direction of the First Movement dragged too much Ma Non Troppo, and it is similar to another "blasphemous" mistreatment of Mahler's Fifth Symphony's "Adagietto" by Leonard Bernstein. Furtwangler in this movement is downright too aristocratic and "polite", contrasting Beethoven's fiercely independent, idealistic spirit. It is tragic that only recently Zander adhered Beethoven's demanding metronomic markings while maestros in the past, Karajan, Toscanini even had the guts to ignore the Maestro's wishes. One has to hear the stupendously gallopping Fourth Movement and you're barely audible to the choir's pronunciations of Schiller's text. Yes, one has to make sacrifices to make a work more consumable to audiences, but we have more than enough of that already. Forget the bloody polite Romanticism descending from Mendelssohnian era polluting the great Maestro's Scripture, like it or not, this is the real Beethoven. It is time to submit to His Tyranny in order to fully appreciate His genius. By all means, buy it for history have been made."

Beethoven's notes at Beethoven's tempi

Sreds | Santa Barbara, CA | 03/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The liner notes of this disk compellingly argue that (1) Beethoven was very clear about the tempi at which his music was to be played, and that (2) no one plays his music at his tempi! In fact, astoundingly, this is the ONLY recording of the 9th that you can buy that strictly adheres to Beethoven's tempi.This pretty much makes it a must buy. I, for one, couldn't care less what tempi a conductor like Furtwangler thinks sound good; if I wanted to hear Furtwangler tempi, I would buy a recording of a Furtwangler symphony. Until you've heard this disk, you haven't heard Beethoven's 9th at all."