I have never heard Beethoven played with such verve and excitement. While the Karajan and Furtwangler Beethoven symphonies are majestic and stately, like a top-of-the-line Mercedes Benz, Gardiner's purrs, roars and sings like a Porsche.
I tend to agree with a lot of points mentioned by the previous reviewers but I don't find this work to be as despicable as they make it seem. Traditionalist revisionism is always a tricky thing in classical music composition drawing a lot of opinions from various points of view. There are certainly defects to these performances and interpretations, but, compared to a lot of other work out there it's certainly not average or the worst. I don't regret having purchased this set despite its deficiencies.Beet..
The many recorded cycles of Beethoven symphonies have been reckoning up by dozens, like Sir Joseph's female relations, but I feel the fondest of this entire cycle among the historically-informed versions. Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his period-instrument forces have brushed these works clean of cobwebs, such that they sound fresh, clean and in line with what Beethoven would have wanted us to experience. To be sure, some listeners who favour the anodyne Karajanesque or Furtwangleresque approach applied to th..
