Riccardo Chailly - Beethoven Symphonies on Decca

During the first 20 years of the CD era, it became almost an entitlement or a rite for every conductor to record a Beethoven symphony cycle - whether they had anything unique to offer or not. This glut of Beethoven symphony cycles has devalued the singular achievements of truly great Beethoven interpreters, and the fact that there are some very definitive cycles reaching back to the pre-digital era makes the need for another cycle dubious at best. We have seen rather needless cycles still get recorded - and there is never any difficulty finding a good set of Beethoven in the used stores for cheap.

So we have yet again another Beethoven symphony cycle, this one from Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester - who previously recorded a very fine cycle with Kurt Masur on Phillips. Why is this one worthy of attention?

The reason is in the tempos. Not since Toscanini has a conductor really tried to follow Beethoven's tempo and dynamic markings to the letter. In the decades since Toscanini, we have had period instrument versions of varying success - Norrington, who gave great timbral and dynamic insight - but was fairly conservative on tempos, Gardiner, who gave a compelling cycle, and others. My opinion is that there has yet to be a truly great original instruments cycle.

And there are Beethoven cycles that are near perfect - Karajan's early 60's Berlin cycle still is a benchmark, Kempe's 1970's cycle is wonderfully played and given straight up, musical readings, Krips' Everest cycle is to me a better 'old school' one than Walter. In fact, the latter seems to be the genesis of the problem in Beethoven interpretation - Walter's widely disseminated Columbia Orchestra cycle was the epitome of the old school view - and as such, so much just plain wrong performing tradition sprung up from it, conductors have had decades of difficulty getting back to the true Beethoven. Maybe it is here with Chailly.

Yes, the tempos are fast - very fast, right up to Beethoven's metronome markings. More striking are the dynamics - very wide, sharp, crisp, almost brutal. Some may find some element of humor or lightness missing, or find these readings rigid, which they tend to be. However, they are very exciting in how driven they are - and it is highly likely that this is very much how Beethoven would have conducted them. In a sense, this is period instrument performance on modern instruments, however, we hear many instances where particularly in the valves (and even in the bowing) where an authentic approach has been taken.

So overall, without attempting to dissect individual movements, this is a cycle that indeed does have a very unique point of view, something very new and engaging to offer. the sound is superb, the Liepzig acoustic has been well captured - and in of itself brings a further air of 'period' authenticity to the recordings. The word 'cycle' really has meaning here - this is a true cycle, played and meant to be heard as a whole that shed a new light of Beethoven's symphonies when listened to as a cycle.

There could be no more appropriate tribute to the true Beethoven than a recorded cycle as this coming from Liepzig, with which Beethoven had such great affinity. A highly, highly recommended recording.