Beethoven
Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Op. 55, 'Eroica'*,
Symphony No. 4 in B flat, Op. 60#
Felix Weingartner, cond.
*Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
#London Philharmonic Orchestra

Naxos 8.110956

My wait is over!

I'd been waiting for this one! In my college freshman English composition
class, for our first essay, we were asked to write five pages on something
we knew very well. It took me one nanosecond to decide to write on the
Felix Weingartner recording of Beethoven's Third Symphony. I'd first
heard it on a 78rpm set (as I recall it was twelve discs!) that belonged
to my aunt. Then I bought my own LP of it in the early 1950s. I remember
I wrote fifteen pages and even then had to pare it down somewhat. I
remember my comp teacher wrote in the margins, 'Whoa, boy!' I wrote two
pages alone on the 'false' horn entry against shimmering string tremolos
ushering in the first movement recapitulation.

You get my drift. This is a great performance of the 'Eroica.' It is
not idiosyncratic like some, and it is not stodgy or self-aggrandizing
like others. There is great subtlety - for instance, those initial E
flat chords don't hit you upside the head; rather, they announce that
something of great import is to follow. And it does. The funeral march
is not played as a pompous dirge, but as a heartfelt song of mourning
and consolation. The scherzo is fleet but also full, partly because of
those wonderful wide-bore Viennese horns. The finale variations have an
overall line that doesn't fall apart into the individual variations, but
builds to a stupendous climax. Weingartner was one of the most amazing
moulders of orchestral sound. His sforzandi, for instance, are always
gauged exactly to match the surrounding orchestral dynamic; they don't
punch you, they energize you.

The Fourth, called a 'slender Greek maiden between two giants' by Schumann,
is gentle, dancing, full of genuine but slightly hesitant feeling. Listen
to how the ending of the first movement reaches an almost transcendant
intensity. And I dare you to try to keep still during the lively third
and fourth movements. Ah, yes.

The sound in both these performances is simply amazing for recordings
from the 1930s. Mark-Obert Thorn, the producing engineer, has done it
again. And then there is Naxos's budget price!

Scott Morrison