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Erich Leinsdorf’s stint as music director of the Boston Symphony lasted from 1962 through 1969; these recordings were made at the very end of his tenure and they are glorious. The performance of the Ninth Symphony is lean, beautifully articulated and powerful, rather in the manner of Toscanini, Szell or Reiner. But unlike other, to my ears rather impersonal sounding Leinsdorf/BSO Beethoven symphony recordings, here the conductor seems thoroughly engaged with the music. And undoubtedly that is the result of the brilliant theatrical stroke of preceding the performance of Beethoven’s paean to triumphant humanism with Schoenberg’s shattering little cantata about the Holocaust. Leinsdorf insisted that this juxtaposition, one he had devised for his final public appearance as BSO Music Director at Tanglewood, should also appear on his recording of the Beethoven symphony. And it is positively chilling how the Schoenberg seems to fade into the opening string tremolos of Beethoven’s so-familiar first movement. Once you experience Leinsdorf’s performance of these two masterpieces you will never hear either the same way again. (I especially recommend the experience to those for whom the Ninth has become perhaps too familiar.) An amazing, unique experience. Sound quality is superb, completely living up to BMG’s promotional hype about its 96/24 remastering process.
Like another reviewer noted, Leinsdorf’s reading of this seminal work is lean and propulsive. It is far from routine as so many cookie-cutter performances are like Previn Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 ~ Previn or Dohnányi Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 , or overly brittle like much of Szell’s Beethoven can be. I owned this newer release of the performance but ended-up selling it because I had absolutely no interest in the Schoenberg discmate. Instead, I purchased the Victrola reissue very inexpensively and in very acceptable sound Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 “Choral” . No one investing in this recording should be disappointed. Highly recommended.
This recording of the towering Ninth is a revelation–not in spite of, but BECAUSE of Leinsdorf’s ability to get out of the way and let Beethoven be heard! I’m sick to death of having overzealous conductors drop anvils on my head to demonstrate the effects of their supposedly “inspired” deep thoughts on this work. If there’s a composer whose work doesn’t require the conductor to turn to the listener as if to say, “See? This part right here is significant!”, it’s Beethoven. Leinsdorf neither pushes nor drags; he may not be trying to provide the greatest “depth”, but he also isn’t boring us to death–a trend that started with Otto Klemperer, a well-documented manic depressive who made far too many recordings during his depressive periods and far too few during his manic periods. I like the way Leinsdorf varies the dynamics in the cantabile passages in the second movement, which helps it move, and the tympani are FOR ONCE not suppressed! He keeps the third movement moving (if there’s one thing I hate, it’s passing out and waking up to find the third movement is STILL going on like a bad day at work). And then there’s the finale, where Sherrill Milnes and Placido Domingo blend like chocolate and darker chocolate (which they would do for next two decades), both because of the sounds they make and their incredible skill at ensemble. Their dark tones and careful shading cover the passages where some awful, discordant sounds often emerge when the soprano is suddenly exposed or the principals are scaling in different directions–painful if you have a rather dry, sharp-toned tenor and a too-dark mezzo coupled with a wooly basso and a screechy soprano. This is a very well matched, blended, highly skilled ensemble of principal singers who for once don’t sound like they met up ten minutes before the recording–the best sung Ninth you’re likely to hear. I’ve heard too many versions where the singers are singing well but sound like they are on different planets.
I don’t know what another reviewer was getting at in saying Milnes is not a good enough vocal actor to put Schoenberg’s Warsaw piece over. It’s not an operatic role nor a standard accompanied narration, it’s a cantata-like sprechstimme (speech-singing) piece meant to dramatize terrible events that are actually depicted by the music. “Acting” it adds little value for a lot of effort, and whatever there is to be added that supposedly isn’t provided by Milnes is not something I’d search the catalog for to in the hope of acquiring a mythical better version of this short piece. It’s not like Sherrill Milnes was muttering to himself in this version!
The remastering has excellent sound and adds a little boom to what was already a well recorded and spacious LP issue; the previous CD issue was a bit more remote in sound and cut the Schoenberg.
This recording was made in April 1969 following the farewell concert of Erich Leinsdorf as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra with the same programme. For that ocasion Maestro Leinsdorf choose Beethoven’s 9th preceded with Schoenberg’s short but dramatic and intense work. This is a demonstration of Leinsdorf as a smart concert scheduler: both works speak on freedom and human rights, besides the great differences in motivation and inspiration. The results are terrible. Sherril Milnes as narrator in A Survivor form Warsaw frezees one’s blood, exposing al terror from the nazis invading the Jewish ghetto (it is told that Schoenberg heard the story from an actual survivor and composed the work on it). Leinsdorf’s Beethoven is a well paced, classic performance. You will not find here spectacular sounds, just an honest and exact performance with great sound form the Bostonians in a very german style. Timpani have a great presence and execution, also the chorus and the soloists. Besides, this is the first Ninth sung by Domingo, then an ascending star in the opera arena who had just signed an RCA contract. Recording is clear, wide and detailed.
The only recording in which the great tenor Domingo sings the ninth solo. Furthermore, “The Survival of Warsaw,” which I don’t have a chance to listen to easily, has also been made up for it. The combination of a tragic chorus song and a “song of delight” is valuable. It’s the essential ninth performance, but it’s the ninth standard in the analog stereo era for me, who is a favorite of Rheinsdorf and Boston Hibiki.
From the first movement to the third movement, Rheinsdorf’s skills as a symphony conductor are clearly understood. In the fourth movement with vocal music, “Oh, Rheinsdorf is a person from the opera.”It is stunning to be painstakingly.The choir is excellent, and the solo, especially the male voice, is amazing.It should be that, too, Sheryl Milns and Placid Domingo.
Revel, who likes Rheinsdorf, is already familiar with the decision-making of the various songs in the book of things.So, I will briefly introduce the “Rheinsdorf Board” that I caught, which is not hard to obtain and is easy to priced.
1. Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, which he wrote first.Both domestic and imported the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra are excellent.
2) Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, recorded with Richter at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
3. Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Perlman.
4. Hit at Puccini’s Turandot (
“Leinsdorf, Turandot”) at the Roman State Opera.(Björrink, Nilsson, and Tebaldi!).
5. Violin Concerto by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, who swung the Boston Symphony Orchestra in concert with Perlman (22 years old at Perlman).This is why only hits “Sibelius, Perlman”).
( Orchestra is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with Lazare Bellman.
For 5, for some reason Sibelius has led a lack of propulsion, and this may be the reason why this is said to be “inevitable”.6 It is not without the tendency of “rare edition”, but its responsibility is due to the difference in the Auftact sense of Bellman (at the end of the same board there is a live in Carnegie Hall of Beethoven’s “Tragic Sonata”(but the audience’s puzzled applause is interesting), Rheinsdorf is just Rheinsdorf.
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