Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 8

Symphony No. 8 F Major op. 93; Concerto for Piano&Orchestra No. 3 C Minor op. 37

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CD/ Track	Title	Duration
1.1	Symphony No. 8 F Major op. 93 Allegro vivace e con brio	08:37
1.2	Symphony No. 8 F Major op. 93 Allegretto scherzando	03:47
1.3	Symphony No. 8 F Major op. 93 Tempo di Menuetto	16:02
1.4	Symphony No. 8 F Major op. 93 Allegro vivace	07:31
1.5	Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 C Minor op. 37 Allegro con brio	15:19
1.6	Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 C Minor op. 37 Largo	08:41
1.7	Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 C Minor op. 37 Rondo.Allegro	09:30
1.8	Große Fuge for String Quartet B flat Major op. 133	16:02

available

15,95 EUR

: SCM Hänssler
Art.-No.:: 093.056.000
: Compact Disc
Duration:: 1:14 hrs.
: June 2002
: *recommended retail price

Jed Distler on www.classicstoday.com: "If you like Beethoven's Eighth Symphony served up in bold, primary colors, with textures as brash and hard-hitting as the zaniest Marx Brothers dialogue (the Scherchen and Kletzki recordings, for example), you'll find a kindred spirit in Michael Gielen. Comparing the present recording taped in January 2000) to the conductor's 1996 reading with the same orchestra (EMI), Gielen has mellowed a bit. In the first movement's second subject, for example, he allows the strings a wider degree of inflection and takes the Allegretto at a fractionally slower tempo, making it easier for the back and forth patterns between the strings and woodwinds to truly converse. I also prefer the remake for its warmer sonics, richer bass lines, and more colorful, expressive woodwind playing (especially in the Menuet).

In Beethoven's Third Concerto Gielen provides an ironclad orchestral framework whose expressive qualities and dramatic continuity are conveyed by carefully calibrated instrumental balances rather than by adjusting the basic tempo. Pianist Stefan Litwin's pingy, fortepiano-like sonority and crisp fingerwork snugly fit into Gielen's conception.

Gielen's string-orchestra arrangement of Beethoven's Grosse Fugue employs an array of articulations and solo/ensemble proportions that evoke Bartókian terrain, or, in a few instances, Bernard Herrmann's high-pitched violin squeals reminiscent of the notorious shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho. Dare I suggest that the occasional syncopated bow-tappings suggest disco hand-claps à la "Hooked On Classics"? Gielen would kill me for saying that, but what's wrong with danceable Beethoven?"