Beethoven's Fifth redux
Jul. 27th, 2007 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuA few weeks ago, I posted about a mishap while listening to Beethoven's Fifth. Today made up for it.
Last night, I borrowed a bunch of CDs from the library so that I can compare various performances of the finale of the Seventh (which I think is as close to perfection as humanity has ever come in purely orchestral music). Today on my way in to work I put in one of the CDs, knowing that it would start with the Fifth and I'll save the Seventh for later.
It was Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. It's a mono recording, recorded in the early '50s and limited by the frequency response of the microphone of the time.
And it blew my socks off. The inner voices are distinct. The woodwinds combine subtle phrasing with power. There were details that I heard in this recording that I'd never noticed before. This was not a by-the-numbers rendition of a warhorse, it was an exhilarating ear-opening interpretation, full of insight.
(And I lamented the fact that it's no longer possible for a major network to assemble a world-class symphony orchestra for weekly broadcast concerts.)
Last night, I borrowed a bunch of CDs from the library so that I can compare various performances of the finale of the Seventh (which I think is as close to perfection as humanity has ever come in purely orchestral music). Today on my way in to work I put in one of the CDs, knowing that it would start with the Fifth and I'll save the Seventh for later.
It was Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. It's a mono recording, recorded in the early '50s and limited by the frequency response of the microphone of the time.
And it blew my socks off. The inner voices are distinct. The woodwinds combine subtle phrasing with power. There were details that I heard in this recording that I'd never noticed before. This was not a by-the-numbers rendition of a warhorse, it was an exhilarating ear-opening interpretation, full of insight.
(And I lamented the fact that it's no longer possible for a major network to assemble a world-class symphony orchestra for weekly broadcast concerts.)