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Beethoven's 5th Symphony

Posted by Tadlo (A) on May 11, 2007 at 13:25:29

Talking about various recordings of this old warhorse may or may not be of any interest to anybody else, but I have been listening lately to several of my recordings trying to figure out which one is best, and I sort of feel like expressing myself about it. It sort of started when I was trying to figure out which ones to load into my iPod. I was also wanted to figure out why the Carlos Kleiber version is so widely held to be one of the best. The versions I have been listening to are the Kleiber, the 3 DG Karajan recordings plus the 66 video on Youtube, the four Solti versions, several Toscanini ('20, '33, '39, '52), Bohm, various Furtwangler versions, Wand, Norrington, Weller, Rattle, and Gardiner. I have had these for years and heard them countless times, but this was the first time that I have ever listened to them side by side over an over in a short period of time to figure out their various strengths and weaknesses.

I am going to focus mainly on the first movement, but I also have some comments about the whole symphony when I get to what I think is the best performance. The first main issue is whether to go fast or slow. All the versions I have seem to get through the first movement in either a few seconds over 7 minutes (assuming the exposition repeat) or somewhere around 8 1/4 to 8 1/2 minutes. Try as I might, I cannot get much satisfaction out of the over 8 minute versions. To me, the first movement has got to be fast, crisp, clear, but still weighty, Not even Furtwangler gets it done for me with the slow, weighty, ponderous approach. So I eliminate Bohm, Solti, Furtwangler, Weller. Kleiber, Karajan, Toscanini, Gardiner, Norrington, Wand, and Rattle all take the first movement at about the Beethoven metronome marking. This is essential for generating the appropriate level of fire and passion. I want it to blaze. So how to rank the fast ones?

I used to think, the faster the better--until I heard Wand and Toscanini '52. The problem with Wand is partly the recording, which is so over-resonant that too much detail and crispness of the attacks are missing in action. And somehow, even though it is big sounding with the resonant acoustic, it somehow sounds light weight. So if you go fast, you have still got to make it weighty. The impact of the '52 Toscanini is marred for me because the quarter notes of the four note patterns of the main cadences of the movement are always so shortened and clipped--especially the forth and final note in each of them. It greatly reduces the necessary heft of the movement. The '39 version is much better, with a good balance of fire and weight, without the clipping of the quarter notes. I have a '33 version that is ok, but it leaves out the exposition repeat, which I think is needed. The Karajan versions seem all pretty similar to each other for me, but the recording quality got worse in the later recordings. The '63 version has a little tape hiss and congestion in the loud passages, but it is the clearest of the lot and. The '77 is so resonant that the detail is a little blurred, and the '83 is very ugly, opaque digital sound the seriously clouds the detail. There actually are some inner voices in this symphony, and it really helps to be able to hear them. I like the Karajan versions very much. For a long time I could not see (or hear) why they were not as highly regarded as Kleiber. They seemed pretty similar in fact. But somehow they are not quite as perfect. Part of the problem is clarity let down by recording quality. The very beginning of the '77 version is slightly not clear--I can't tell whether its blurred ensemble or muddy recording, but the first statement of main motiv is not quite clear. The best Karajan version I have heard is the '66 video on Youtube. It is faster than the studio recordings, but more precise and exciting. But Karajan does not quite get the metaphysical truth of the work that Kleiber gets so perfectly Norrington and Gardiner are great for allowing the inner voices and parts to be heard because of the smaller string sections. They are exciting but a little too light weight for me. Solti finally got the fact that this movement needs to go fast for his last version, which was from a concert with the Vienna Phil. There was a PBS show with a Chicago Symphony performance of the 5th at the fast speed, featuring Solti yammering on about how he had discovered that Beethoven metronome markings could actually be followed. I was stunned, because he was talking as though this was news. This was in the early 90's. How had he missed what Norrington had been doing for a decade, and Toscanini had done a half century ago?!!
The Kleiber really is the best, period. I listened to these versions over and over before coming to this conclusion. It is now on my short list of almost absolutely perfect recordings. It has it all. Fire, passion, clarity, weight, form, structure, shaping, phrasing, accents perfectly placed, perfect playing with the VPO. What really distinguishes the performance, however, is the metaphysical truth, spirituality, pathos, agony, ecstasy, hope, triumph and exaltation that is not oblivious to the struggle that was required to get there!!! There are passages in this recording that I are almost too overwhelming to bare.
Well, I needed to get that off my chest. Thanks for indulging me.

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