Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies - Barenboim / Berliner Staatskapelle (2000)
Performer: Soile Isokoski, Rosemarie Lang, Robert Gambill, René Pape, Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin
Orchestra: Staatskapelle Berlin
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Label: Teldec
Editorial Reviews :
Beethoven has been a dominating presence in Daniel Barenboims musical life, from his early years as a piano prodigy to his long-held international podium career. He recorded the piano sonatas twice and the concertos three times--as soloist with Otto Klemperer, as conductor accompanying Artur Rubinstein, and as conductor from the keyboard(!). When it came to tackling the nine Beethoven symphonies in toto, however, Barenboim bided his time. The results add up to one of the most commanding, insightful, and stimulating Beethoven cycles ever to be released. As a Beethovenian, Barenboim is very much an exponent of the German symphonic school, favoring weighty sonorities, expansive tempi, and full-throated dynamism. Well-known conductors as disparate as Böhm, Sanderling, Kletzki, Tennstedt, Walter, Bernstein, and Klemperer come out of this tradition, as does Wilhelm Furtwängler, whom Barenboim ardently admires.
While Barenboim has clearly absorbed key elements of Furtwänglers Beethoven (the spiritual and dramatic grip, plus long-range harmonic tension), the younger conductor is no carbon copy of his hero. Moreover, few (if any) Furtwängler recordings boast orchestral execution at the extraordinary level of the Berliner Staatskapelle here, achieving more heft and finesse than on their previous cycle under Otmar Suitner on Denon. Their playing never lets up in fervency and commitment, the few missed notes and anticipated entrances insignificant. The brass resonates like old gold, the winds are no less colorful, and the dark, articulate strings at once caress and scorch. Likewise, the all-important timpani parts emerge with greater clarity than in many other Beethoven cycles, and the close-miked singers in the Ninth Symphonys finale add much to that movements inner vitality. Barenboim observes nearly every repeat, and opts for such traditional reinforcements as the extended trumpet line in the Eroica Symphonys first movement coda and added brass in the Ninths scherzo. Teldecs spacious yet dynamic engineering suits both the music and Barenboims conceptions to a tee. In sum, these potent, concentrated, and powerfully inflected performances reveal the extraordinary degree to which Barenboim has internalized the German Beethoven tradition and made it his own.
Track Listings :
No. 1, 2
1. Symphony No. 1 In C Major, Op. 21: Adagio molto - Allegro con brio
2. Symphony No. 1 In C Major, Op. 21: Andante cantabile con moto
3. Symphony No. 1 In C Major, Op. 21: Menuetto: Allegro molto e vivace
4. Symphony No. 1 In C Major, Op. 21: Finale: Adagio - Allegro molto e vivace
5. Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 36: Adagio molto - Allegro con brio
6. Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 36: Larghetto
7. Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 36: Scherzo: Allegro
8. Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 36: Allegro molto
No. 3
1. Symphony No. 3 In E Flat Major, Op. 55 Sinfonia eroica: Allegro con brio
2. Symphony No. 3 In E Flat Major, Op. 55 Sinfonia eroica: Marcia funebre: Adagio assai
3. Symphony No. 3 In E Flat Major, Op. 55 Sinfonia eroica: Scherzo: Allegro vivace
4. Symphony No. 3 In E Flat Major, Op. 55 Sinfonia eroica: Finale: Allegro molto
No. 4, 5
1. Symphony No. 4 In B Flat Major, Op. 60: Adagio - Allegro vivace
2. Symphony No. 4 In B Flat Major, Op. 60: Adagio
3. Symphony No. 4 In B Flat Major, Op. 60: Allegro vivace
4. Symphony No. 4 In B Flat Major, Op. 60: Allegro ma non troppo
5. Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67: Allegro con brio
6. Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67: Andante con moto
7. Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67: Allegro
8. Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67: Allegro
No. 6
1. Symphony No. 6 In F Major, Op. 68 Sinfonia pastorale: Allegro ma non troppo - Erwachen heiterer - E