Denis Fodor ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Rodney Corkin writes:
>
>>I'd like some opinions regarding period instrument performace of
>>Classical period music, especially Beethoven.
>
>Beethoven's symphonies lend themselves very well period instruments.  ...
>But there is a definite difference in sound.  The funereal parts of the
>Third or the Seventh sound drier, more neutral, as do the joyous parts of
>the Sixth.  HIP delivers a more matter-of-fact Beethoven.  But for those
>who (sometimes) like a less lapel-grabbin' sound, HIP can be the answer
>IMO.

I think your characterisation of the difference in sound is very good,
although I have notived a tendency over the years for the lean HIP sound
to become warmer and, dare I say it, less HIP-sounding.

The Hanover Band cycle is fine in its way, the Ninth especially, but I
believe the only HIP conductor using period instruments (Harnoncourt's
cycle which, like a particularly extreme curate;s egg, is great in parts,
only uses natural trumpets, the other instruments being modern) who really
comes to grip with any of the symphonies as great, profound music, with
not a hint of the dusty galls of academe, is Franz Bru"ggen.

Whie his cycle (Philips, O18C) is not uniformly successful, either in
terms of performance or recording, the Eroica and the Ninth strike me as
worthy of mention with some of the finest of all.  The former has an almost
Furtwaenglerian ebb and flow, while the latter has a real sense of the
cosmic to it.  (Sorry, but if you'd heard it you'd probably know what I
mean).

And before anyone asks, yes I do have Norrington, Hogwood and Eliot
Gardiner's cycles and wouldn't swap the Bru"ggen for all three of them put
together.

Deryk Barker
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