Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies. Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. Berlin Classics. $29.99 (5 CDs).
Herbert Blomstedt’s long and storied career – he was born in 1927 – includes, scarcely surprisingly, a long and storied relationship with the symphonies of Beethoven, both in concert and in recorded form. It can be easy to forget, from an extramusical and geopolitical perspective, just how far out of the ordinary the first cycle he recorded was. These analog recordings were made in 1975-1980, when Blomstedt was chief conductor of Staatskapelle Dresden – a position he continued to hold until 1985. They represented a rare and risky collaboration between an American-born Swedish conductor and a preeminent East German orchestra, at a time when tensions between the West and the Soviet bloc were high and cultural exchange was a comparative rarity – with Blomstedt’s full commitment behind the Iron Curtain even rarer (and somewhat controversial).
This Beethoven cycle was originally released on East Germany’s state-owned ETERNA label and subsequently, as the world changed in many ways (and failed to change in many others), reappeared on Brilliant Classics; and now here it is again, on Berlin Classics, having been suitably remastered during the 2019-2020 time period. It brings its history with it, and Blomstedt’s – but given the reality of Blomstedt’s significant rethinking of Beethoven’s symphonies for his much later (2017) cycle with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, released to celebrate the conductor’s 90th birthday, it is fair to ask what place there is for a recording made in a very different time, under very different circumstances.
The answer lies where it should: in the music. Recorded in Dresden’s Lukaskirche, the symphonies in these performances sound warm and resonant and at the same time intimate. The performances have a relaxed quality about them, not in the sense of being slow-paced but in terms of being presented by musicians who have lived with the music for so long and so closely that there is no sense whatsoever of any strain in bringing forth its shape and emotional communication. Indeed, excellent emotional balance – as well as excellent sectional balance – is a hallmark of this set, especially in symphonies that it can be all too easy to present in over-the-top versions: the Fifth, in particular, opens with somewhat less drive and drama than usual and therefore builds all the more effectively to a very powerful finale.
There is grandeur aplenty here. Despite the irritating omission of the repeat of the first movement’s exposition (a common, unfortunate practice in performances in the 1970s), this “Eroica” sounds genuinely heroic, with a finale that comes across as a genuine capstone rather than the slight letdown it sometimes turns into in lesser readings. The Ninth is exceptionally well sung by Helena Doese, Marga Schiml, Peter Schreier, Theo Adam, Chor der Staatsoper Dresden and Rundfunkchor Leipzig – and the string sound is exceptional as well, notably in a buoyant Scherzo that fits the scale of the symphony perfectly (as is not always the case with this movement). The winds are excellent, too, not only in the Ninth but also in the rest of the symphonies – and the brass, especially when given a chance to dominate the conversation as in the Seventh, is absolutely outstanding. Indeed, the Seventh is a highlight in this set: although the first movement is overly broad, the others are exceptionally well-paced and expressive, with considerable emotional heft in the Allegretto and utter joyousness in the finale.
The less-dramatic symphonies fare as well in their ways as the more-dramatic ones do in theirs. The First here sounds carefully poised between the Classical era and the proto-Romantic, although the orchestra’s warm sound looks more toward the future than the past. The Second is strongly rhythmic and has enough intensity to show its kinship with the “Eroica,” which is not always apparent. The Fourth is simply gorgeous: lyrical, beautifully paced, expansive in feeling, with well-chosen tempos that enhance its flow and allow listeners to revel in its many lovely turns of phrase. The Sixth sounds suitably rustic: Blomstedt, through the strings and winds, brings forth its many touches of the countryside, from birdsong to dance to the post-storm celebratory thanksgiving. And the Eighth is in no way minimized because of its scale, as it is in some Beethoven cycles: it comes across here as a more relaxed, less intense exploration of many of the rhythmic nuances and subtleties that are more brightly illuminated in the Seventh – an intriguing and wholly successful approach.
Despite all its excellences, this set will not be to everyone’s taste. The playing and pacing are somewhat “old school,” which is to say they predate both the excellences and the rigidities of the historical-performance era, including the more-recent preoccupation with examining the composer’s own time period to decide on orchestral size, tempos and balance. The warmth throughout of Blomstedt’s Dresden performances, and their comparatively slow pacing in some places, have an old-fashioned feeling about them. The conductor’s own 2017 cycle is generally much quicker (and closer to Beethoven’s own tempo indications), and the orchestral balance is different – not better or worse but more in line with more-recent notions of how Beethoven “should” sound. The Dresden readings are not over-Romanticized, but they are Romanticized to a certain extent, with a greater emphasis on emotional communication than on precision of adherence to a predetermined set of historically established norms. They are essentially expressions of a worldview determined not only by Blomstedt’s musicality and high level of comfort with the music but also by the time period and sociopolitical circumstances in which they were performed and recorded. But great performances transcend their external trappings, and like other top-notch Beethoven conductors who have visited and revisited the symphonies – Herbert von Karajan comes immediately to mind in this context – Blomstedt produced readings in his Dresden recordings that were of their time and place but not limited by them. His later set sees Beethoven from a different place and a different angle, but this earlier one remains fully worthy and fully relevant in its own right, is frequently revelatory, and is always a joy to hear and a moving experience in which to engage.
No comments:
Post a Comment