FREE BEETHOVEN
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A FREE 128k MP3
BEETHOVEN
Symphony #9
To van der Sluys
Suze Luger
Louis van Tulder
Willem Ravelli
Amsterdam Toonkunst Ch.
Royal Oratorio Society
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Willem Mengelberg
Amsterdam, 1940
Once again, Pristine Audio turns its digital wizardry to the superb refurbishing of another deserving historical performance-in this case, one of the truly great performances of the Beethoven Ninth of all time. Compared to the original Philips issue the sound quality has been opened up and expanded, with richer highs and lows, less ambient noise of various sorts, and much greater clarity of instrumental detail, though until the opening of the finale the bass frequencies still remain a touch dry and less robust than would be ideal. Particularly arresting is the extraordinary instrumental color of the woodwinds and brass; while much of that is owed both to Mengelberg's expert ear and the uniformity of the orchestral equipment (at the time, all members of the orchestra were required to obtain their instruments from a single famous Dutch maker), I also wonder if Mengelberg used any of Mahler's retouchings of the orchestration or did some of his own. Hopefully some knowledgeable Fanfare reader or fellow critic will kindly enlighten us here.
My intense enthusiasm for this performance is all the more remarkable because Mengelberg is a conductor for whose work I generally have respect rather than empathy. Here, however, we have one of those imperishable readings of a monumental score with innumerable fine touches, both great and small, that repeatedly shatter complacently held conceptions and cause one to re-hear the work in a new and refreshing light. There is an incredible febrile energy to the first movement, powerful but not frantic as in some performances by Toscanini. The second movement is more measured (with exposition repeats taken) but not slow, and characterized by extraordinary rhythmic precision in all the instrumental parts; even the timpani does not turn blurry in the repeated dotted eighth-note rhythms. In the third movement the opening Adagio is expansive, whereas the succeeding Andante is rather brisk-much more so than is my usual preference, which is for Furtwängler-and yet absolutely convincing, with a fine buildup to the climactic trumpet fanfare; a few portamento slides appear in the strings toward the end. Only regarding the finale do I have minor reservations, as a few distracting idiosyncrasies appear. The rhythm becomes eccentrically stilted at the entrance of the vocal quartet; "Seid umschlungen, Millionen" is delivered with oddly clipped and over-emphatic phrasing, and then there is the notorious bizarre drop of the tempo to half speed for the last two bars of the movement. The chorus and soloists are sound if not stellar. To van der Sluys and Suze Luger are both competent; bass Willem Ravelli does well by his opening peroration; tenor Louis van Tulder does not possess the most ingratiating voice in timbre and lumbers a bit in the florid passagework at the end of his solo, but nonetheless acquits himself respectably. Still, the faults are but small and momentary blemishes in a broadly paced rendition that successfully weds monumentality to ecstatic fervor. One would never guess from this triumphant and joyful performance that only eight days later Nazi Germany would unleash its Blitzkrieg against hapless Holland and usher its nightmarish occupation for four and a half years, with one of the musical casualties ultimately being a politically compromised Mengelberg.
No text for the choral finale is provided; program notes for the album are, per Pristine's usual practice, posted on its website. While my register of potential candidates for the 2011 Want List is already overflowing with worthy entries, this is surely a leading contender-an indispensable release for anyone who loves this work and values immortal historic interpretations despite their sonic limitations.
James A. Altena, FANFARE Jul/Aug 2011
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PASC 258
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LATEST REVIEW
| Audiophile Audition
4 November 2012
Furtwängler conducts Beethoven
by Gary Lemco
"The restored Beethoven Second under Furtwaengler from London warrants our admiration and devotion, a most conscientious application of technology to musical history"
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When the 3 October 1949 performance of the Beethoven Symphony No. 2 from Albert Hall, London, Wilhelm Furtwaengler conducting, appeared for the first time in 1979, music collectors hailed it for its historical completion of "The Nine" with Furtwaengler, a document that, despite its poor sound quality, enhanced our knowledge of this epic interpreter's vision of the Beethoven symphonic oeuvre. Restoration engineer Andrew Rose has herein completed a meticulous upgrade of the original masters, utilizing his XR process, and presents us a virile studied rendition of the D Major Symphony, noted for its especially lovely second movement Larghetto which Berlioz much admired. Despite some of the lower frequency details having been lost, the interior rhythmic subtlety of the opening Adagio molto stands out, the pregnant dialogue of flute and strings, particularly. When the potency of the Beethoven personality does break forth to leave the niceties of the Haydn world behind, the explosions compel our awe at the emotional ferocity unleashed, and we might regret that Furtwaengler does not take the first movement repeat, the only such elision in his reading of this score. The ease of execution and tonal responsiveness of the VPO - Furtwaengler's "mistress" - testify to the sheer virtuosity of this ensemble when urged by a convinced interpreter.
The songfulness of the Larghetto movement commands the price of admission, the emotional heart of the symphony and little indebted in its distribution of voices to models from Mozart or Haydn. A bit of Furtwaengler's willful character emerges in his individual rubato, but his players interact well within his lyrico-dramatic parameters. Somewhat more mercurial in its changing moods than when interpreted by other conductors, the movement offers militant and sometimes exalted visions of an alternative world. The most mischievous of Beethoven's Scherzos follows, acerbic even in its relative brevity. Furtwaengler balances a marcato approach with sudden onrushes of pent-up energy. The bassoon work in the Trio complements the big-hearted warmth in the VPO string line. The Allegro molto finale enjoys an unbuttoned momentum that lacks neither warmth nor power, and the upward rockets from the VPO strings provide a lesson in orchestral discipline in itself. Furtwaengler's dionysiac coda plays with the meter and the drama but the result quite intoxicates our repeated auditions.
The commercial recording (18 October 1953) from EMI of the Leonore Overture No. 3 simply acknowledges the old Schnabel maxim that the best encore to Beethoven is more Beethoven. Grandly conceived and paced, the performance proves that the Overture replaces the spoken operatic drama in absolute music and therefore becomes superfluous as an introduction. Eminently potent, the performance celebrates the woodwind choirs of the VPO at their resplendent best. Furtwaengler plays the overture as symphony in miniature, a testament to the composer's passionate commitment to the idea of human political freedom. The famous trumpet calls over a string pedal, clear and resonant, emanate a thrilling grandeur of spirit, extending through the flute and bassoon into a new development that culminates in the colossal coda.
The Beethoven Symphony No. 1( 19 September 1954) derives from the last of Furtwaengler's appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic before his death in November of 1954. This work seems consistently to have eluded Furtwaengler's sympathy, insofar as he imposes upon it a weight - as he does in much Baroque and Classical composition - entirely over-wrought and more appropriate to Brahms or Wagner. Where Lorin Maazel in concert once made early Beethoven consonant with Rossini, Furtwaengler sees only the inevitable evolution in Beethoven's volatile personality, the Promethean forces agitating below any placid surface. The latter figures in the Allegro con brio first movement hurtle forward like the Seventh. In spite of the tonal beauty of the BPO in the Andante cantabile, the massive aura plays like the equivalent movement in the Fourth. A richer and more resonant Menuetto you'd likely never hear, assuming you want the sforzati to adumbrate those in King Stephan. The last movement opens with the diaphanous texture requisite to the score, then the lure of the colossal proves too tempting, although the orchestral sheen remains dazzling. Furtwaengler loved and worshipped Beauty, but his vision could resemble that of Chirico, wherein the Herculean architecture of imposing marble appears to have consumed our sense of perspective.
PASC 355 (72:20)
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CONTENTS
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Editorial Beethoven - plus new 200g "audiophile" vinyl
Klemperer Beethoven Symphonies Volume 1 - Nos 1-3
Columbia Beethoven Centennial - 1927 editions vol. 1
PADA Beethoven's Hammerklavier - Egon Petri in 1956
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Beethoven, Beethoven, Beethoven
Beginning two essential symphonic series This week we're seriously getting into Beethoven, with the beginnings of two landmark series of recordings of the nine symphonies. Mark Obert-Thorn will, over the next couple of years, produce five volumes which for the first time bring together UK Columbia's ground-breaking centenary series of recordings. These were made in the very earliest days of electrical recording, bringing together some of the finest musicians and orchestras of the day in an unprecedented series for release in 1927, 100 years after the composer's death. We begin with the first two symphonies, under the respective batons of Sir George Henschel and Sir Thomas Beecham, coupled with the third Leonore Overture, conducted by Sir Henry Wood. Volume 2, next May, will bring the Third and Fourth Symphonies from Wood and Sir Hamilton Harty, whilst in a year from now we'll be enjoying Weingartner's Fifth and Sixth. Meanwhile in much quicker planned succession, I'm working on the classic Klemperer series recording largely in the autumn of 1957, and surely among if not the very first stereo Beethoven symphonic cycle - but more than that, it's still rated as one of the finest ever made. As I've explained in my technical notes, the original recordings were very well made for their day, and for some there's perhaps no great incentive to replace EMI's perfectly acceptable current set of CDs. But if you're someone who demands the very best possible sound quality then I'm happy to point you in the direction of this new release. XR remastering has really dug deep into those recordings and brought real improvements right across the frequency range, from an enhancement of the deep bass, through the opening out of the strings which, in retrospect, sounded rather constricted, to the lifting of what I can only call a veil over the high treble. In short, it's what you might expect to hear had modern recording technology been involved rather than the mid-fifties equipment then available. For those who've loved Klemperer's Beethoven, and who love the finest sound quality, it really is an essential addition to your collection. Brand new "audiophile" vinyl - Part 1This week I took delivery of an album I'd ordered a couple of weeks ago before my trip to the Shetland Islands. The plan is to remaster it ready for part of a release either next week or the week after that, and work is already well underway. It's something of a first for me. Although the recording was made back in the late 1950s, the pressing here is brand new and (in theory at least) of particularly high quality. It's given all the usual audiophile blurb, with the kind of stats which are designed impress: pressed onto four single-sided discs, each running at 45rpm, on heavy virgin 200g vinyl... The playing portion of the discs occupies little more than half the available space, allowed for maximum linear velocity and no worries about end-of-side distortion. The company claims to have used the original master tapes as their source, and has licensed an exact replica of the original RCA Victor sleeve to go in with their own plain white heavy card covers (you can't fit four fat LPs in the original single-LP sleeve!). The total cost for this LP (spread, as I said, over four 12" single-sided discs) was $50, plus $30 to get it shipped over from the USA to France. That's a lot more than you'll pay for the half-a-Pristine release download it'll comprise when work is complete. So is it worth it? Or is it pandering to audiophile vinyl addicts with deep pockets and a desire to show off their mega turntables? Well this week and next week I'm investigating for you - today I have my initial impressions to offer; I've transferred two of the sides and carried out a partial remastering/restoration of them in my usual manner. As I type I have the original transfer, a de-clicked version of it, and the XR-processed version running side by side on my audio workstation, so I can switch quickly and easily between them for instant A-B-C comparison. My initial impressions are, I have to say, somewhat mixed. Let's look at the bad news first: The start of the second disc has a small scratch or blemish which runs across six grooves to produce seven seconds of repeated sharp clicks, which are considerably louder than the music - not what you want to hear on absolutely mint audiophile vinyl. Elsewhere there are a good number of small ticks and the kind of low crackle we all remember from the pre-CD days. There's also more rumble than I'd expected, though generally it's pretty good, and I'm listening on speakers with a particularly low bass extension. All of the centre holes are a little oversized, so that none of the discs fitted snugly on the spindle, leaving me to try and perfectly centre the discs by eye to prevent pitch wow and tonearm swinging. I'm used to all this of course from playing discs pressed 30, 40, 50 or 60 years ago - and of course this technology hasn't really progressed much since then. I have a good turntable (Nottingham Analogue), a high quality Origin Live tonearm, with a Benz moving coil cartridge passing through a Musical Fidelity pre-amp prior to digitising at 24/96 through my RME professional ADC/DAC - the latter high resolution so that I can really investigate this closely (I normally work at a 44.1kHz sampling rate). The first disc was played before and after cleaning on my VPI record cleaner using Disc Doctor fluids - the good Doctor recommends cleaning even mint vinyl to wash away any factory residues, and on this evidence I think he's right. I got the clear impression that the master tapes had been significantly equalised prior to cutting the vinyl masters, mainly to boost the top end - a simple way of making a record sound "better" to those who'd like to believe analogue beats digital, but not perhaps the kind of sophisticated equalisation an XR remastering employs. Normally with a recording of this vintage I'd expect XR remastering to be adding a little back in at the top end, but in this case it was pulling it back, and it sounds much more realistic as a result. There's a distinct "thump" to be heard with each revolution during the between-movement gap on the second disc, which despite all the 200g vinyl and careful packaging, didn't sit flat on the turntable and required a clamp to prevent the stylus taking something of a roller-coaster ride during playback. All in all I'd be somewhat disappointed if these discs were all I had to listen to had I just invested in a brand new high-end vinyl system. I'm used to better sound than this from digital systems, not least because they can and do deliver higher quality audio than analogue systems have ever been capable of producing. But then it's so long since I bought brand new vinyl that I've forgotten what it's like - so many of the records I play are of a vintage for which I allow some technical shortcomings. But I'm sure I've had as good as or better from 80s vinyl than this. And yet as a remastering engineer I'm delighted - as vinyl source material, and after XR remastering, the sound quality is superb. Those ticks and scratches are now gone, the rumble has been removed, and it really does sound great post-equalisation. My original source for this recording was a pre-recorded cassette, which is why I'd started searching around for something better. I'm glad I did - but I'm only halfway through this transfer, with two discs still unplayed. I'll report back on those, and what (if anything) there is up above the upper reaches of CD replay frequencies, next week. I Puritani - playback in the wrong order? The FLAC downloads of Maria Callas's I Puritani which were released a couple of weeks ago were missing track number information, which may have caused a few problems playing the opera in the correct track order. This has been remedied and the copies on our servers replaced with new versions that are correctly labelled. If you bought any of the FLAC downloads and would like to replace your copy with a relabelled one, please check your confirmation e-mail for your download page URL and return to it. Hopefully your download link will still be live - if not you can request a new download by clicking on the page link and I'll authorise it as quickly as I can. If you do start downloading again I recommend completely deleting the original version so there's no confusion between the two. I should point out here that there is no difference whatsoever in the sound here - just the possible order of replay! Christmas is comingWe've seen our usual surge of pre-Christmas orders over the last few weeks and I'm pleased to report that our enlarged CD production facility is working well to turn orders round more quickly than ever. Do remember to give us a few days though to prepare your discs and get them into the mail - and take account of possible delays in your own postal service at this time of year. If you are buying Christmas present we're doing our bit to get them to you as quickly as we can - but please don't put it off to the last minute or our packages will be fighting their way through an avalanche of cards! And if you're not sure what to buy, there's always our own album, A Very Pristine Christmas, brainchild of Mark Obert-Thorn and featuring transfers from Mark, myself, Ward Marston, John Duffy, and the late Peter Harrison. Full details of the album can be found here. Andrew Rose
16 November 2012
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Klemperer's classic Beethoven Symphony Cycle starts here
Unprecedented sound quality in these new 32-bit XR-remastered transfers
 BEETHOVEN
Symphonies 1-3
Cariolan Overture
Recorded 1957/59, stereo
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Andrew Rose
The Philharmonia Orchestra
Otto Klemperer
Web page: PASC 365
Short Notes
"Klemperer's performances completely transcend the boundaries of national style. In some ways he is a profoundly German conductor and yet he completely avoids the over-slow adagios that are such a hallmark of German conducting...Klemperer manages by the sheer breadth and resilience of his phrasing to impart a forward drive to the music that in general compensates for actual notes-per-minute speed"
The Gramophone, 1960
Klemperer's stereo Beethoven Symphony recordings, made mainly in 1957 (before stereo was available on disc) are landmarks in the history of recorded music and a staple of the catalogue.
Here Pristine has applied its unique 32-bit XR remastering system to bring you these immortal recordings in unprecendented sound quality - beginning with the first three symphonies and the Coriolan Overture, first of three double-CD volumes encompassing the complete series.
Klemperer, Legge and Beethoven
All of us owe a debt to Walter Legge - even the music critics among us - for his acumen in detecting great gifts and his ruthless determination that they shall be displayed in this country. It is principally due to him that Klemperer's stature was at last established here; London has a firm tradition of Klemperer neglect going back to the early thirties, when only a few critics shouted his greatness into deaf ears. In recent years there have been few more profoundly thrilling events than those tremendous Beethoven series, few more exciting moments than when the curtain to the artists' room of the Festival Hall was suddenly pulled aside and that great figure came shuffling out, stick held aggressively forward, hand groping for the rail, the huge head flung back like an Easter Island statue. If one raised one's eyes to a box above, there usually was Mr. Legge concealed behind a triumphant grin, and if one had recovered from the concert sufficiently by morning, one could limp round to the shops for the records of the Beethoven symphonies which Mr. Legge's Columbia connection provided...
John Warrack - The Gramophone, August 1960
Notes On this recording
Klemperer was a busy man in 1957 and thereabouts. Having polished off the Brahms symphonies (Pristine Audio PASC360-362) in the springtime, he soon set to work on the Beethoven canon. October alone saw recordings in London's Kingsway Hall of the bulk of the series - all or part of the First, Second, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth and Ninth were taped in stereo during this month, together with the Coriolan Overture present in this volume.
It's true to say that the recordings were very well made for their day - better perhaps than the Brahms which had preceded them. XR remastering here isn't a question of rescuing a dismal historic artefact; rather it's a case of eliciting the very finest sound quality possible from from fine source material - digging deep into the bass for added richness; opening out oft-constricted strings; lifting a veil from the upper treble. In short, whilst the current EMI transfers are perfectly acceptable representations of what was possible in 1957, these Pristine remastering offer us what more could have been heard had Klemperer and the Philharmonia had a 21st century recording facility to work with. It's one of those classic series of recordings which merit the very best sound quality - and which should stand thus in every collection.
Andrew Rose
MP3 Sample Symphony 3, 1st mvt.
Listen
Download purchase links:
Stereo MP3
Stereo 16-bit FLAC
Stereo 24-bit FLAC
CD purchase links and all other information:
PASC 365 - webpage at Pristine Classical
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The Columbia Beethoven Centennial Symphony Series, Volume 1
Groundbreaking Symphonic series first issued in 1927 begins here in new Obert-Thorn transfers  BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1
Symphony No. 2 Leonore Overture No. 3 Recorded 1926-27 Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Sir George Henschel Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Thomas Beecham London Symphony Orchestra Sir Henry J. Wood New Queen's Hall Orchestra
Web page: PASC 366
Producer's note
This volume is the first of five which will reissue, for the first time in one series, the complete symphony cycle which English Columbia commissioned to commemorate the centennial of Beethoven's death in 1927. It was a bold move for the label, perennially in the shadow of its larger competitor, HMV, to embark on such a project at a time when no other company had recorded all nine symphonies using the relatively new electrical process. Indeed, HMV and Polydor would not complete their cycles until several years after the centennial had passed.
The first four symphonies were assigned to British conductors (Henschel, Beecham, Wood and the Northern Irish Harty) while the remainder were given to Weingartner, already generally acknowledged as a Beethoven specialist. The German-born Sir George Henschel (1850-1934) was equally noted for his appearances as a baritone recitalist as he was for his conducting. He was the first music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and this Beethoven First Symphony is his only recording as a conductor.
Beecham's recording of the Second Symphony was the first of three he would make (the others were in 1936 with the LPO and 1956/7 with "his" RPO). While all share an exuberant approach to the main theme of the first movement, the present performance threatens to go off the rails with tempi that are just short of humanly impossible to play. The Luftpausen just before and after the Trio in the Scherzo were an interpretive indulgence Beecham did not repeat in his later versions. It has never been reissued on CD before, perhaps in part due to the unusually high playback speed required (84.4 rpm at A4 = 440Hz, quite the fastest speed I've ever encountered for an electrical recording). Henry Wood's contemporaneously-recorded Leonore Overture, although not part of the Centennial Symphonies series, has been included to fill out the short program, as a sort of preview for his Eroica on Volume 2.
The sources for the transfers were first edition American Columbia "Viva-Tonal" pressings. Multiple copies of each were assembled, and the best sides were chosen for transfer, although it must be kept in mind that these early electrics are inherently rather noisy. The Henschel set was plagued by pitch fluctuation throughout each side, which has been corrected in this transfer.
Mark Obert-Thorn
MP3 Sample Sym. 1, 3rd mvt + Sym. 2, 4th mvt.
Listen
Download purchase links:
Mono MP3
Mono 16-bit FLAC
CD purchase links and all other information:
PASC 366 - webpage at Pristine Classical
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Egon Petri plays Beethoven's Hammerklavier
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PADA Exclusives
Streamed MP3s you can also download
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat, Op. 106, "Hammerklavier"
Egon Petri piano
Recorded c. 1956 for Westminster LP XWN-18747
Transfers by Dr. John Duffy Over 500 PADA Exclusives recordings are available for high-quality streamed listening and free 224kbps MP3 download to all subscribers. PADA Exclusives are not available on CD and are additional to our main catalogue.  Subscriptions start from €1 per week for PADA Exclusives only listening and download access. A full subscription to PADA Premium gets you all this plus unlimited streamed listening access to all Pristine Classical recordings for just €10 per month, with a free 1 week introductory trial.
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