Beethoven is THE genius of the Western musical culture, both the pinnacle and point of origin of our modern age. Before Beethoven, musical perfection was to achieve harmonic balance: Mozart, Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi all wrote music to uplift and to bring you to harmony with yourself, nature and your fellow human beings. Beethoven has left this path. He does not guide you to the microcosm, the depths of your soul, but he takes a full panorama of both microcosm and macrocosm: from the tiniest part of creation to to largest scale. His works describe creation as it is: the workings of the universe and the universal laws are translated into musical notes. If you understand Beethoven's music, you understand the universe, limitless energy coupled with purpose and divine intellect. It's the Western analogue of enlightenment, all-knowing, expressed in music.
Beethoven had an unprecedented impact on the evolution of Western music. Following him, most composers have been striving to reach his heights, and to surpass it. Mahler, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Dvorzak, Bartók, Stravinsky. They all wrote grand works, often for much bigger and louder orchestras than Beethoven's symphonies. Yet, none of them could surpass him, as they all lacked Beethoven's all-encompassing understanding of the universal laws, that govern both music and life. They all got caught up at the surface level, submerged under the unfolding drama of mankind, the tension leading to the world wars and the devastation to life, nature and phsyche of mankind wrought by these monstrous man-made cataclysms. In their music the world is already fragmented and irrevocably broken. Beethoven was the first and the last to provide us a glimpse of the wholeness of the universe: not just our local petty existence, but the workings of universal laws, birth and death, unlocking the secrets of mortals, titans and gods. He presented the entire spectrum from tiny critters burrowing in the ground to the fate of the universe.
He could do this, because despite climbing titanic heights, he never lost the focus on measure and universal balance. He steers Noah's Arc across the seas of music. Those who came after have lost this focus, the guidance and the unerring ability to steer on dangerous waters towards safety. They built ever bigger vessels for their music, creating ever bigger versions of the Titanic. Trying to outdo their predecessors, and ramming icebergs ever more ferociously with ostentatious displays of grand drama. Their conjurations are ravaged and wrecked by monstrous hurricanes. In contrast, you always know with absolute certainty that Beethoven will steer you safely through any maelstorm. He preserves the core of humanity, even though mankind is about to enter the dark age of the soul, and submerge under world wars. In contrast, modern composers are but observers and documenters of the XXth century drama, of violated nature and wounded human mind and spirit. Those who come after the world wars, in our times, can be best described as film score writers.
Hence, the crucial importance of Beethoven's symphonies, and of their interpretation. Does the conductor and the orchestra convey Beethoven's focus, knowledge, range and purpose? The Beethoven interpreters of the highest order did achieve this feat. After listening to such an interpretation, you feel energized and calm at the same time. Centered and focused, creativity overflowing. Reborn as an immortal yet humbled.
I list Ferencsik, Széll, Solti, Toscanini and Karajan among those who grasped the core of Beethoven's works, who can propel me to the land of unbridled creativity. Most of the young conductors struggle with the technical difficulties of conducting these pieces, while the German school conductors (Furtwangler, Böhm) stay on the romantic side: safely away from touching the core of Beethoven. They seem to bear the cautiousness, the humility and the shame of a beaten nation who's conscience suffered an indelible blow for war crimes of the past. Beethoven's symphonies are the equivalents of harnessing nuclear energy. A XXth century German leader has done it, harnessed the energy of propelling a nation to unbridled action and the result was tragedy. Thus, the German school of Beethoven conductors appears solely focused on steering as far away from the power locked inside Beethoven's music as possible to avoid awakening dormant energies and repeating the dark pages of history. Thus, it is not a surprise at all that it's not the German, but the Hungarian school of music teaching was the one that unlocked Beethoven's powers for our age. It was the Hungarian education system of that era (first half of the XXth century) that gave rise to the Hungarian John von Neuman, who was the father of computers and started the explosion of technology and progress that ensued. Edward Teller, another Hungarian who came out of that education system, gave birth to the fusion bomb, the greatest source of energy available today. The vibrant Hungarian intellectual millieu of the era also gave birth to equally ambitious Beethoven interpretations. Music and numerical mathematics always go hand in hand. They are two different representation forms of the same mathematical principles. This millieu of mathematical brilliance, and the hunger to unlock the secrets of the universe gave birth to the Hun conductors: Széll, Solti, Ferencsik. It's stunning how close these conductors' Beethoven symphony interpretations are! I've never seen this happen anywhere else in the history of recorded music, such closeness in interpretation. I'm amazed though that Karajan also ventured into these waters, along with the Huns. On the other hand, I'm not surprised the least with Toscanini: he understood scale, from monumental to microscopic. It's fitting that his Beethoven conducting reaches Olympic heights.
Beethoven produced an amazing array of works. Quartets, sonatas, and all sorts of smaller scale works which are absolute gems for late night relaxed music listening, to recharge your emotional and mental energies. All of them are extremely well-balanced, brilliant gems of composition. While Mozart was a natural-born brilliant genius driven by his feelings, never changing a note that he wrote down - Beethoven suffered hard for creating his music: he constantly re-wrote his works. His scores are the hard labor of intense mental creation and the process of countless iterations, relentless perfection. So, while Mozart is the epitome of channeling music from his heart, Beethoven is the epitome of forging music: laying out an idea, and elevating it to unheard levels though the power of mind and determination.
MLP, CD transfer: Beethoven 5 & 6 Doráti, LSO:
The Beethoven symphonies take us to the depth of human existence, history, the journey to our roles in the human experience. If the presentation conveys this experience, then you hear Beethoven. When you hear virtuoso performances, albeit it fails to reach the depths of the soul and encompass the expanse of creation, then the performance does not reach Beethoven's heights. You hear XYZ's command of the violin, or taking the orchestra to uncharted territory, yet the conductor falls short on understanding and conveying Beethoven. Maybe it's just me, but when something is advertised as Beethoven, I want to hear Beethoven and not a hot-shot's latest desperate cry for novelty and fame. Luckily, Doráti's interpretation does not fall into that shady area, which is the swampland of our age.
No 5: excellent conducting, playing. Highly recommended. My favorite conductor for playing the Beethoven symphonies is János Ferencsik. Doráti’s performance on this recording comes up pretty close, he conducts the opening quite similarly to Ferencsik, although he starts to deviate at the Andante con moto (second track) - Ferencsik goes much deeper there, Doráti stays on the surface, playing with the beauty of the song. More showy, but with restraint. Certainly not a show off, and well within bounds. Doráti has lots of feelings at the dynamic parts, but he loses involvement at the soft and slow passages. I have the impression that I’m getting half the picture, the peaks do not have a solid foundation to launch off.
This seems a very harsh criticism, but Beethoven sets the golden standard for dynamic contrasts. To me, he is the one who has mastered it. Those who follow - Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and others, fail to reach his mastery. They go overboard with the peaks and drama, losing balance. Think of Titanic - bigger is not necessarily better, comes a point where you start wishing you were on a different ship altogether. One, that safely and successfully transports people to their desired destination!
By the end of the third movement (Allegro, 3rd track) the soft passage is played with plenty of depth! You get different emotions compared to Ferencsik’s pure Beethoven. However, you get plenty to explore, and the explosive finale is perfectly built up. Lifting your soul, right to the end of the symphony. Two thumbs up, definitively on the list of favorite Beethoven’s 5th interpretations!!
No 6 Pastorale symphony: similar experience as No 5... until the third movement Allegro is very Italian Allegro, we left Germany altogether! Too playful and mediterranean for Beethoven. Rushes you around - we are not allowed to absorb the beauty of the soft passages. This phenomenon usually happens with young, inexperienced conductors: they are under the impression that they have to break the record of speed-conducting. However, faster is not necessarily better. Much can be lost by rushing blindly. Throws you off track, and you would think that we are listening to Dvorzak, Strauss, or John Williams. Emphasis on the superficial colors and not on the depths of the soul. After a strong overture, we have lost Beethoven. My suspicion is that they ran out of time for rehearsals, and after a strong overture the British crew fall back on to autopilot. One thumb up, one thumb down.
If Beethoven is news to you, then you will not miss out much and you will be delighted in the beginning, as the playing and the listening experience is very nice. However, from the third movement on, they are not playing Beethoven. Definitely scratched off my listening list.
This CD also has the Prometheus Overture: very nice and refreshing, interpreted as if it was a Mozart play, with occasional Beethoven riffs. If you put the composer out of your mind, it sounds as if it was a very nice Mozart piece. Well, Beethoven was largely inspired by Mozart in the beginning of his career, and this is not one of his later works, so it’s really a question of interpretation. However, I would have preferred a more mature Beethovenesque approach, but this works when you are not in a nitpicking mood and listen for the sake of innocent experience. Thumbs up - after all, there's a good chance Beethoven himself conducted it this way in his early years. However, certainly not like that when he performed it in his mature or late years.
Overall, this is a very uplifting, highly recommended CD. Skip tracks 7-10 if you want hard core fully mature Beethoven. If you want to bask in music without care to authenticity of interpretation, play the entire CD.
Solti, Chicago SO. Absolutely stellar performance, second to Ferencsik. Both conducting and playing. Excellent recordings, close to EMI in tonal balance. Very dynamic and large scale. London is much more detailed, dynamic, layered. Seems to be a much earlier pressing.
Decca 6.33275 Blue label
LONDON Stereophonic 70.5667 Black/silver label
George Szell / Cleveland O. EPIC BSC150. As good interpretation as Solti. Recording quality even better! Astounding performance.
No 6. Pastorale: Colin Davis , Philips. 6500463. Excellent recording quality, first rate conducting. At places it gets too formal and overly polite and controlled, and looses the flow. To say the least, overall, superb Pastorale, recommended. (Rev. 2020, Jan)
William Steinberg / Pittshburgh SO, Command 35MM, CC12001DS Beethoven IX: Big, spacious and full sound. Conducting is forceful, but lacks finesse and dynamic play that Ferencsik shows. Titans are there, but small voices are missing: no contrast to build upon. Violins are completely overpowered: violins lack power where it is needed. Overall, it lacks dimensionality, suffers from Titanic complex (size is there, but lack of attention to details sinks the ship).
Bernstein / NYPO, Columbia D8D 815: Conducting not nearly as good as Toscanini's. Had a noisy tape, highs overload the mids, and there's little bass. Little detail. By itself it's not bad, but compared to the Huns and Toscanini, it does not stand. The deluxe box set edition is gorgeous, beats the physical presentation of all, though. Too bad the recording quality is not on par!
Furtwangler / Widesound Stereo C047-00811/12. Haphazard conducting. No dynamic contrast. Timing of entrances dead wrong. Sounds very small scale. Expected way, way more from legendary Furtwangler. Auf wiedersehen!
Munch / BS - Living Stereo LSC-6066. Quoting Nelli: "WTF is this ?!! This will give me bad dreams." Yeah, it was that bad. One must be on more than Prozac to butcher the IXth symphony so badly. Did not listen to more than 1min of the intro, chucked the lot in the bin. This ain't going to Goodwill, the torture ends here.
Herbert von Karajan
I have two versions of Karajan's Beethoven I-IX symphonies cycles. The 1970 and the later 1977 version. The 77 versions box set appearance and print quality is an absolute stunner. Most of the time the booklets are OKish to a waste of time, but this booklet is an absolute gem! Contains in-depth interview with Karajan. According to Karajan, his new 77' version sounds much better than the 1970 version. Let's put this to the test!
1970 version, 2720007 German pressing. Its US reissue is part of the Beethoven Bicentennial edition (US pressing). It's part of those huge, ubiquitous Beethoven boxed sets. I compared 4 of those Bicentennial boxed sets, and distilled them down to the best sounding one, which was still quite inferior to the German pressing. (Much noisier and much less detail, dynamics, and even the conducting sounds different due to lowered / distorted pressing.)
1977 version, 2740172. Much poorer, much less dynamic than the 1970 version. Editing / processing is very audible. Probably optimized for a very limited playback system, where the processing could be beneficial. Even worse, there is a channel imbalance, and the first side of the first record is a poor pressing. Arrrgh!!!
Briefly, the new version is very poor sounding, and weaker conducting compared to the older version. The birds are chirping that his newer recordings suffer similar issues, and that gave rise in the US to the belief that Karajan is not such a good conductor. (Also, add fact that his 70's recordings US pressing is much poorer in quality than the German pressings.) I think he is an outstanding conductor, one of the great ones. He is the absolute authority on Orff, and his earlier / German Beethoven is generally superb. If you have the slightest doubts, check out his 1970 Beethoven cycle - get a copy from Europe. You will get a dead wrong impression of him through the US Beethoven cycle.
Arturo Toscanini
Olympic Records ATS1120/7: sounds as if recorded from and AM radio transmission! Ugh.
RCA Victor LM-6901. (Mono). Several copies. 56S: extremely dynamic and good sounding, even though super late pressing. 39S: much better detail level of instuments, but noticeably less dynamic than late 56S pressing! 44S: less detail, higher recording level, more dynamic but not as good as latest 56S copy! Apparently RCA boosts the recording level around 50S,to cope with loss of detail. Noticed this a number of times, seems to be standard RCA practice: very late records (50S-60S) are way more dynamic than late ones (30-39S), but have less resolution. Overall, they tend to sound better overall than 30-39S.
RCA German edition. AT600. Little fast tempo, but very good Beethoven conducting! Quality is superb, very loud pressing.
Ferencsik János
To me, Ferencsik represents the divinity of the Beethoven Symphonies. His conducting and portrayal is on an immortal plane, transcends the mundane. It is extremely intricate yet natural, flows as life itself. There are no disjoint events, no broken elements. I have an East-German pressed boxed set of the 9 symphonies.
Symphony #4 Recording quality: unfortunately, it's not an early pressing, there is a loss of detail characteristic of later issues. Instruments are not super clear. An example, the violins sound as a whole section together instead of individual instruments. However, as a consolation, their tone is very good! In general, the tone of every instrument is superb, especially the clarinets. (As clarinets play critical part of this piece, this is a huge bonus!) I was never really keen on clarinets and never understood why my grandfather was attracted to play it. Now I do! Clarinet players, this is the recording for you for pure inspiration! Initially I was a little annoyed because I expected higher dynamics and higher resolution from this recording. (I had the CD for two decades..) At tutti, the dynamics compresses - not sure why. It could be that the pressing has compressed dynamics: Eastern European recordings always compressed their material that was released to the Eastern market, as the happy or unhappy barracks playbacks systems cheap cartridges could not handle extended dynamics. This is a German pressing, so I expected full dynamic range - apparently I was not that lucky, maybe it was mastered for the Eastern markets. Also, the bass is not well defined, it is kind of mushed compared to superbly miked recordings. Yet, the bass has the right weight and tone. This recording has something absolutely special: it sounds as if it was miked from the audience, and not from a fictional optimal position hanging from high above the orchestra, or at a spot you never get to hear in real life! (That's the impression I got from playback.) What we get on the recording is what we would hear in a real life theater seat with a packed audience: a full house has a less-detailed, slower, less dynamic sound. It has the same characteristic distortion in the bass that I often hear in real theatre seats. The 3D layering of the instruments is LIFE-LIKE! The ONLY recording I came across (until 2019) that presents a CREDIBLE portrayal of you actually being at the venue, listening to the performance! If we found a copy of an early edition without dynamics limiter, then I would say that probably could be the most faithful representation of a real orchestral experience on recording!
Pastorale (No 6.)
Bruno Walter. ML-5284 Columbia Masterworks. Russian style conducting, very romantic. Fusion cuisine again, meh, not recommended.
Colin Davis, BBC SO. Philips 6500463. Pretty good and inspired conducting, but at times it becomes mechanical and takes you out from the land of inspiration to the land of analysis. Otherwise, a decent interpretation with no major faults, with very good recording quality. Quiet, dynamic and good tone.
Bernard Haitnik, London PO. Philips Unfortunately record had a big surface defect, removed from collection. First couple minutes were pretty decent though, but not Solti's or Ferencsik's heights.
Karl Böhm, Wiener PO, DG2530142. After his Mozart operas, I expected a lot from Maestro Böhm. Well, for his Pastorale, I got a Mozart.-surprise. It really sounded as if I was listening to Mozart.... I understand the maestro's fascination with Mozart, but could we move on the Beethoven's later years? After all, when he wrote the Pastorale he was well past 14 years old... Briefly, thoroughly disappointing. Could fly as "Beethoven for Valentine's day" for inexperienced lovers. Romantic, schmoozy, sweet. Sure, ticks off happy feeling checkmarks for just about everyone. Still, it's too childish to consider as Beethoven.... if he wrote Pastorale when he was 10, this is how it would have sounded.
The monos: (singles) 2020, March
Sviatoslav Richter, piano sonatas op 4 no’s 1,2. Nice quiet playing, nice recording quality, superb for background listening while all the previous ones commanded exclusive attention.
Vladimir Horowitz, moonlight sonata. RCA Victor, LM1027. EQ3, recording quality is nothing to write home about. Okay. The playing is remarkable.
Ivan Moravec pianist, Conosseur Society / The Classics Record Library SRL1194. Sonatas, concerto no 4, etc. superb sound, in your home piano concert, you can feel the weight of the hammer and tens of tons of pressure on the strings. The delight of harmonics, the fine interplay and floating resonances between strings. Huge piano, fills the air with its presence. Can follow the keyboard action in space. His playing style is on the romantic side, yet powerful and deep and stirring. Very high commendation! Three copies of the boxed set - two copies have superlative sound, and one has distorted harmonics. Almost as if a pressing error, extra harmonic distortion to the strings, very annoying.
Maurizio Pollini, The late piano sonatas. DG 2740166. Good quality recording, maestro has full control over piano, bravissimo. However, watufaka! This ain’t Beethoven. Paints his canvas with super strong emotions. All the intellect of Beethoven is thrown out the window in favor of chasing emotions. Skirts, fast cars, bring them on…. who cares about the mind. TBD (to be donated). The recording level is SUPER high, I literally fell off the couch when he started.
Daniel Barenboim, Die Schönsten Klaviersonaten. Vol 10, EMI 2907683. Good sound. The playing style was very laid back, plus the record very dirty so I have not explored it further. TBD…
Anton Kuerti, The complete piano sonatas Vol VI. CBS Odyssey, 1977. Y3 34649. Sensitive, pensive, meditative performance, with titanic heights. Holy FECK! The fortissimos are mind blowing, the gale force strength of the keys. Unreal. The soft passages are not as detailed as the Moravec recording, but the fortes are mind blowingly powerful. Thumbs up, and a second ride in the ultrasonic bath!
Rudolf Buchbinder Sonaten Vol I. Telefunken. This has been reviewed previously, another run for comparison. The highs reach high, very dynamic, playful. Performance is akin to a satire of Beethoven, executed with finesse. The recording is lighter, does not have the power and weight of the Kuerti or Arrau recordings. I’m not keeping it, as there are so many other at least same sound quality, but better interpretations.
Claudio Arrau, complete piano sonatas - giant box set, Philips 6747035 13lps made in Holland. Magnificent! Outstanding recording quality, live piano sound. Pianissimos are layered and live, while most other recordings have challenges with the soft parts. At fortes, Unrestrained dynamics, power and speed. Also, playing style is deep, deep and deep. I’m not analyzing it now. Too layered for a quickie. Definitively you can listen to it dozens of times and still find it intriguing and a source of wisdom and lore. Most recommended!
Vladimir Ashkenazy Apassionata Telefunken 6.41719AS. 1973. Truly superb live sounding performance. Piano shines, A plays brilliantly. Delightful superb sound performance. Steinway Flugel piano, very recognizable sound. Highly recommended!! Interesting though, record label says Decca.
Askhenazy, Hammerklaiviersonate. Telefunken / Decca 6.41988AW. 1967. Superb recording. Playing….aaaa. He’s super angry at the piano. Looking for a new home….
Rudolf Buchbinder, Diabelli variations. Telefunken 6.42499AH. 1973. Superb sound, but again, he also punishes the piano. Superb hammer attacks, great Sonics, heavy hitter demo record. Not my cup of tea though…
Buchbinder, Die Bagatellen. Telefunken / Meister der musik. 6.42639AN. Again, superb sound. Playing style is too carried away for me. Just as superb Sonics as the previous three teles.
Quartets.
Middle Quartets: June 16, 2020.
Quartetto Italiano, Philips Italy 6998017. Opus 59 only, the 3 Rasumovski quartets. The records were very dirty from the fallen apart foam inserts. Nevertheless, the interpretation is very nice, and recording quality is also good.
The Guarneri Quartet, CS-6415 stereo, Dynagroove. Rasumovski quartets and Op 74 and Op 95. Similar interpretation as Italian quartet, but better recording quality and perhaps a little more fluid and alive interpretation. I like it very much. EQ3. The ynil is super flimsy, never seen anything like that! The sound has dynagroove stretch side-effects, but overall its not bad.
Amadeus Quartett. Rasumovski quartets and Op 74 and Op 95. DG 109161. Best recording quality of all, scary dynamics. Tighter playing, versus the more flowy and dreamy Italians. Na ja, Germans vs Italians...
Piano Concertos
Beethoven piano concerto #1 Eschenbach, Karajan. Berlin Philharmonic. DG 2535273. Resonance series. Very light presentation, and light interpretation. Beethoven with the light side only, no darkness, no contrasts. To me the interpretation is lacking. It’s playfully running around without consequences, without the majesty of Beethoven. The piano is super light sounding, and Eschenbach hits the keys very lightly. Karajan adds to the light feeling, takes the orchestra on a very light, superficial spin. I started on eq1 setting on the Violin, (eq that works well with Decca and Archive), and that was way too light! eq2 made it tolerable. Still, it’s light! Recording wise, the piano is very nicely recorded and a treat to listen to. The high registers, maaaan! You can bask in this piano. It’s truly superb, the fast transients really come through. My beef is that it does not suit Beethoven! If it was Schubert or Mozart, this interpretation style would be brilliant. If you find Beethoven too heavy or too substantial, then you will love this interpretation - music for light listening, and for pure enjoyment of the piano’s sound and the pianist’s brilliance. Feb 3, 2020.
Beethoven piano concertos 10/6/2020 - With AFT7, AO / Ryan 610 / Mirage 760.
No 1, Wilhelm Kempff, Berliner Ph, Ferdinand Leitner. DG LPM-18774. EQ3. Very good spatiality, can't tell it's mono and not stereo. (On AO speakers.) Very good large scale performance, drum roll very nice, piano right hand emphasized over left hand. Ryan 610: left hand right hand are balanced, orchestra sounds grander, more balanced. Piano tone is even, much better overall. (RIght hand of piano is much better with AO, but AO's left hand piano action is down a couple dBs.) Dynamics is compressed with Ryan. The drum roll that was very nice with AO - I completely missed it with the Ryan, it was not there at all. On second listen, it was there, but I had to look for it. With AO, it jumped out in both dynamics and impact. Ryan had the acuostic shape of it right, but there was no impact, energy behind it. Ryan as deeper soundstage, and has much more of the original hall acoustics. Ryan also has better instrument separation. There is so good layering, can't believe it's mono! It's very compressed with Ryan, but AO also shows limited recording, but not to such a degree.
No 1, Solomon, The Philharmonia Orchestra, Herbert Menges cond. Seraphim 60016. EQ3. Starting with Ryan: Much better dynamics than DG! Very mozartesque conducting, geez. Lots of energy and momentum though. Piano is also better recorded. Much more detail and content than with the DG LPM Kempff. Right hand lacking shine and impact, as if the hammers are covered in a cloth. Switching over to AO: more dynamic, very different presentation. Emphasis on the upper registers and low end, basically a loudness effect. Wow, the piano sounds much more alive, physical and tactile than with Ryan! The right hand hammers are revealed, no more cloth covering. The sing and shine.The low left hand registers are also much better now than with Ryan. Curiously, now the roles are reversed compared to the DG recording. In tutti it feels as if I do not have the correct RIAA, the orchestra is not balanced. However, the piano itself and individual instruments from orchestra sound better than Ryan. Switched to EQ2: now all the orschestral imbalances are corrected, even tone. However spatiality completely changed, piano keyboard spans about 8 feet wide, almost the same width as the orchestra. Quite bothersome. All the piano keys have the same impact, and the increased impact from the lowest registers is gone. Piano playing is more involved than Kempff's. Superb pressing from Seraphim! Esso.
No 1, Julius Katchen, LSO / Pierino Gamba. Ace of Diamonds, SDD 2173. EQ2. Starting with AO: MUCH higher cut than the Solomon. Took it down 6dB, and it's still quite louder. Playing is VERY similar to Solomon's. Conducting also mozartesque but not as sweet, little more tempered. Piano very good and balanced. Record needs heavy cleaning. Ryan: piano has receded to the back, I struggle to hear the left hand keys. Soundstage is much smaller. Surface noise much more annoying. The winds and the violins sound like small toy instruments compared to AOs. In tutti it's distorting a lot, the highs get scrambled alltogether, like massively overdriven amplifier distortion. Switched to AO, at same volume level: no distortion whatsoever, I get huge dynamics, highs keep their structure. Checked out the Mirage as well: that gross HF distortion is not there, so it's not an amplifier current handling issue. Could be that the record has a lot of very hf noise, and that excited the Ryan. A deep recerd cleaning is in need... Mirage has biggest scale, deepest sound, most suited to full blown orchestra with dynamics. It's softer and more polite though than the Ryan or the AO. Less detail level, but better long term listenability, and can be pushed louder while staying shout-free.
No 1: Badura-Skoda, Vienna State Opera Orch, Hermann Schrechen. Westminster HI-FI XWN-18339. 1956. EQ4. Very nice, balanced and natural with Mirage, lush big orchestra. Ryan: more defined details from every instrument, but they seems smallish compared to Mirages grander presentation. Applied blue tac and ruthylated quartz tweaks on Ryan's faceplate, and image lifted up considerably higher, piano gained fullness and the orchestra also gained weight. Towards end of Side 1, the recording level drops suddenly and becomes small scale. Quite annoying. Interpretation so different from previous ones that it feels as a completely different piece. It has some Schubertian influence, and (finally) no Mozart.
After Violin recap:
Complete concertos set, Wihelm Kepmff: DG 2740-131. Very well recorded piano, but compressed orchestra. Very annoying compared to the piano, kind of ruins the experience. Sounds as if they have a toy orchestra following a real piano. Could do without the orchestra! Shows progression from early works mozartesque presentation to late works mature Beethoven. 10/11/2020.
Kempff, #2, #4 stand alone LP: Berliner Ph, Ferdinand Leitner. 138-775 SLPM stereo. Bingo, on this pressing the orchestra is not compressed! Superb playing and interpretation. The orchestra and piano form an organic unit, very intricately interwoven. My favorite interpretation of all the Beethoven piano concerto recordings I heard so far.
Complete concertos set, Alfred Brendel: 6767002. Superbly recorded orchestra and piano. Orchestra is very dynamic, and large scale. Show concert style performance, centered on impulse, impact, shine and power. Pretty good all in all, however, if you want to hear pure Beethoven piano, then the solo / single instrument accompanied piano works are they way to go - the concertos are a tad too modern for me, pave the way for modern composers. (Go loud and impressive, forget the content, it's all about the packaging.) Channel imbalance, R is quite louder. 10/11/2020.
No 2, Robert Goldsand / Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, cond Karl Bamberger. Urania USD-1036. Superb sound, balanced recording no schreech / ear hurt. Excellent, deep interpretation. Highly recommended! Not overly detailed, but very good scale and overall great, fulfilling experience. 10/11/2020.
Askhenazy / Solti Chicago SO London ffrr. Several records in series, I have: Nos 2,3,4,5. CS6854,55, EQ2 or EQ3-4dB HF. Large scale very good, full sounding recording. Top end has the ffrr sharpness. Much more modern sound compared to Urania. Superb piano playing, and excellent orchestral accompaniment. Very good balance between piano and orchestra, but are grand and well-recorded. Much better than either the Kempff or Brendell series, both in recording quality and interpretation. 10/11/2020.
Richter #3, DG SLPM 138-848 mono. Very dynamic and crystal clear recording. Of two copies one was significantly leaner. Conducting and playing is very theatrical and showy, little Beethoven. Relatively rare, goes for 30-40 NM on popsike. Yes, good recording, but as an interpretation, I do not feel the urge to give a second listen. 11/17/2020