[导读] 贝多芬交响曲录音评述（英文）
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Complete Stereo Sets
Budget Price
There are a number of sets available in the budget price range, although the nature of the Web scarcely makes it practicable for me to attempt to define that range. Some of them are excellent, some should have been left in the studio.
Possibly the most famous cycle ever made is the 1961/2 set by Karajan and the BPO. The second of his four complete cycles, this probably ranks as the finest in stereo. There are individual performances that he improved upon in his 1977 cycle (and some that were worse), but it has all the assets of this conductor: consistency, great orchestral precision and beauty of tone, and it is well recorded although the bass is perhaps a little diffuse. (And there is some tape his, which is particularly noticeable if listening through headphones; still considering some of the historical recordings I'm going to recommend this is not really significant)
This was the set I grew up with and I was glad of the opportunity to replace my 25-year old LPs at a bargain price, even though I must confess that, as with many of Karajan's recordings, I find their aggressive "perfection" tends to pall after a while. Having said which, I don't believe I've ever heard the soprano part of the Choral sung better or more beautifully than by the radiant Gundula Janowitz.
If you are looking for possibly an even greater bargain (depending on exactly where you live) and want to avoid following the crowd, then try the Ferencsik set on the ultra-cheap Laserlight label. Recorded in the early 80s in passable but unspectacular digital sound, the obvious - for financial reasons - comparison with Karajan does not always come out in the latter's favour. On the whole I tend to prefer Ferencsik on the even-numbered symphonies - where Karajan tends to push forward rather too much for my taste - but Karajan in the odd, although Ferencsik is never less than very good. Unfortunately, though, the LaserLight reissue appears to have shorn the Hungaroton originals of some of their repeats. The conductor's leaving out the repeats is one thing, but when the record company does it in the studio (and, I believe, after the conductor's death) I think the word "philistinism" is scarcely too strong.
LaserLight have also reissued the digital Dresden PO/Herbert Kegel set at a ludicrous price. Unfortunately, although some people rate this highly, my initial listenings suggest merely blandness.
Georg Szell's 1960s Cleveland set has ben reissued on Sony's Essential Classics label and also represents a very strong recommendation in the budget-price band - although, having said that, the exact pricing of most labels will vary from place to place. Your mileage may vary, as they say.
Szell had, by the 1960s, honed the Cleveland into a formidable band and one might view his cycle as being, in some way, a sort of stereophonic Toscanini, although this is undoubtedly a simplification. Szell's cycle does, though, possess many of the virtues which even I can find in Arturo's performances: razor sharp ensemble and flawless intonation being prime among them. Szell's tempi tend towards the brisk.
Pierre Monteux was a remarkable conductor: at the age of 86 he signed a 25-year contract with the LSO! There is no complete Monteux cycle, however one can put one together with little difficulty and at no great expense: symphonies 1-8 can be found on two Decca/London double CD sets (1, 3, 6 & 8 with the VPO in the first set; 2, 4, 5 & 7 with the LSO in the other) and there is a 1961 stereo LSO Ninth recently reissued on MCA's Millenium label.
Monteux turns in consistently excellent performances with a couple of real standouts: a superb Eroica and a cataclysmic Seventh that is in the Furtwängler or Kleiber class.
The MCA (Westminster) Ninth is very fine too: in stereo, although the balance is a little strange in the way the strings are favoured; still, that brings out some seldom heard counterpooint, particularly in the finale.
Mid Price
Defining the mid-price range is even more difficult than budget. Some labels are priced very differently in different countries. My apologies if I refer to a mid-price label which is full-price in your jurisdiction.
Karajan's 1977 cycle is available on DG's mid-price Galleria label; generally good performances, especially the Ninth, although the Eroica is much better in the 1962 cycle. Avoid his 1982-3 digital set: it is the most expensive and least well recorded. The performances aren't much to write home abaout either. Seems old HvK had been reading too much of his own publicity.
Klemperer's stereo set from 1956-61 (EMI) has just been reissued at mid-price. Some of these performances are more successful than others (as, indeed, is the case with all of the complete cycles). The recordings are good without being spectacular. Tempi tend to be on the slow side and this can initially be off-putting. Adjectives usually used to describe these versions include "granite-like", "gruff" and "unyielding". Fair enough, but Klemperer does, as critics used to say at the time, convey the architecture of the music like few others. Another plus of this set: the 1950s Philharmonia was one of the all-time great orchestras, although both they and Klemperer - are heard to better effect in his 1954/5 mono recordings of nos. 3, 5 and 7.
If there is a weak link in this set it is the Ninth; there are several historical Klemperer Ninths around, but I'd like to point those with VCRs to the recently-released 1964 NPO Albert Hall performance reviewed more completely in the section on the Ninth.
Franz Konwitschny was known as "Konwhisky" because of his apparently formidable capacity for the Scottish beverage. His Liepzig cycle, made between 1959 and 1961 (and therefore possibly the very first stereo cycle) and now reissued on Berlin Classics, is, in a sense, to Furtwängler's what Szell's is to Toscanini's. Weighty, with generally slow tempi and a liberally-applied rubato. (The first movement of Konwitschny's Eroica is one of the two or three slowest on record).
I find this cycle particularly satisfying; it is well-played and well-recorded, moreover it comes with most of the overtures (all three Leonore's, Fidelio, Coriolan and Prometheus), and is reasonably priced.
Bruno Walter's "Indian Summer" cycle from the late 1950s and early 1960s (CBS) has, I suspect, recently reappeared in Sony's Bruno Walter Edition, which makes them on the expensive side of mid-price. These are warmly performed and recorded: Walter's love for the music shines through every bar. A fitting memorial to a great musician.
Full Price
Loath though I am to echo the opinions of just about every other reviewer, for me the finest single cycle overall is probably the COE/Harnoncourt (Teldec).
Nikolaus Harnoncourt is widely considered to be one of the fathers of the "authentic" performance school, which seems to dominate the field of baroque, classical and even early romantic music today. Nevertheless, he is no dogmatist, and his recordings of Haydn symphonies have been made with a full-sized modern-instrument orchestra (the Royal Concertgebouw). And very controversial some of it has been.
The notion of a complete set of Beethoven symphonies conducted by Harnoncourt, therefore, was an intriguing one: what kind of instruments would he use? how large an orchestra?
In the event he used a chamber orchestra of about 50 players, all of them, save the trumpets, playing modern instruments. The results are, to say the least, splendid. All the symphonies were recorded live; Nos 1-8 in 1990 and No. 9 in 1991. There is scarcely any discernible audience noise, and the extra tension resulting from live performances makes the effort well worthwhile.
By using these forces, Harnoncourt seems to get the best of both worlds: the sound of modern instruments, which many people - myself included still prefer, coupled with the vitality and precision of a small orchestra and the wonderful rasping tone of the trumpets. The conductor's rationale for using natural (i.e. valveless) trumpets is that modern trumpets have to be played too loud in order to get the martial tone which Beethoven intended. I, for one, am convinced.
Harnoncourt's greatest achievement in this set is precisely what was always claimed for, and somehow never quite managed by, the recent Beethoven recordings by other "authentic" specialists, for example Roger Norrington and Christopher Hogwood. That something is the impression, in the listener's mind, of hearing the music afresh, almost as if for the first time.
This is not to suggest that something of the kind completely escaped the Norringtons and Hogwoods, rather that Harnoncourt conveys it almost entirely by musical, as opposed to musicological, means. This set is fine enough to set beside any from the stereo era, and I certainly wouldn't say that of any other recent complete recordings I have heard.
If you want some concrete examples: try, as I invariably do, the Eroica. The first movement is fast, to be sure, but Harnoncourt doesn't lose sight of its importance: this is, after all, one of the greatest symphonies ever written. The second-movement funeral march, too, loses none of its gravity or fire.
Or try the Seventh symphony. In this work, particularly in the finale, Harnoncourt shows his unerring sense of the long-line in Beethoven; he never loses sight of the end of the movement for the sake of moment-to-moment detail, as so many others seem to.
Perhaps this sense of line is heard at its best in the finale of the Choral Symphony, which receives its finest performance in years, with splendid - and, for once, well-balanced - vocal contributions. It has to be admitted, however, that occasionally, in the early movements, the tension does sag a little at times.
The Eighth symphony is also quite superb, perhaps the very finest stereo recording I know. I would have said finest ever, but see below. If there is one symphony which really doesn't quite take to the Harnoncourt treatment, it is the Pastoral. While this performance is very enjoyable, it all seems just a bit too rushed, and the thunderstorm is not really alarming enough.
Despite these minor - and they really are minor - quibbles, this is still undoubtedly the most recommendable stereo set. I suppose the main difference between Harnoncourt and the other recent pretenders to the Beethoven throne, is that while they may be very fine musicians (and musicologists), Harnoncourt is undoubtedly a great one. Very highly recommended.
One of the most extraordinary-sounding cycles was produced in the early 1960s for Reader's Digest. Students of recording trivia and fnas of certain conductors will be well aware of the spectacular sound achieved three and a half decades ago by RCA's Charles Gerhardt. Now Chesky have reissued the complete cycle with the RPO conducted by René Leibowitz.
Leibowitz (1913-72) is another almost-forgotten name today, but he is a notable figure in 20th century music: a composer - he studied with Schoenberg and Webern - his own private students included Pierre Boulez. Leibowitz's Beethoven tends to fast tempos while never skating over the surface as others can do. Unfortunately Chesky discs tend to be expensive; which is the only thing tempering my recommendation of this set. The sound betrays little or no sign of its age.
Sir George Solti's Chicago set is superbly played - what an orchestral technician the man is! - but always seems a bit heartless. For revealing the inner details, especially of the less familiar symphonies, like the Fourth - Solti is unsurpassed. But his unrelenting dynamism palls fairly quickly, and he doesn't say anything to me about the music.
Josef Krips' Everest cycle has been floating around for years on some very dubious cheap labels in allegedly execrable sound. Now there is an official remastering and the sound is quite spectacular for the date (1959/60 - maybe this is the very first stereo set). Unfortunately, with clarity of sound, the overall blandness of this set becomes all too apparent.
There are a number of other modern cycles around, including those by Haitink, Muti, Abbado, Weller. What I have heard of these, and this is admittedly by no means all of them, struck me as being competent but rather faceless: streamlined performances for a mainstream age.
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Complete "Period" Sets
Since the last revision of this survey there has been even more activity in the area of period instrument, "authentic" or "historically informed" (HIP - no comment, except that it is a convenient acronym) performances.
Quite probably one of the most publicised events in the musical world in the last decade is the apperance of the cycle by the ORR under John Eliot Gardiner. Gardiner is currently being touted as something akin to a Toscanini of the period performance movement. Anything he turns his hand to, apparently, will automatically be the version to buy.
Well, in this particular arena he has stiff competition and there are now, by my reckoning, five complete HIP Beethoven cycles available: the London Classical Players under Roger Norrington (EMI), the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood (Decca/London), The Orchestra of the 18th century under Franz Brüggen (Philips), the Hanover Band under either Monica Huggett (early recordings, maybe just the Fifth) or Roy Goodman (Nimbus) and L'Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique under John Eliot Gardiner. (Incidentally, does anybody else find their name somewhat pretentious for a London-based band performing under an English conductor?)
Having now acquired four of the five sets (I cannot bring myself to spend money on the Hanover band set, because of the truly awful recording of the Fifth under Huggett, whose scratchy strings and wonky woodwind, not to mention cavernously reverberant recording, epitomise what many of us found objectionable in the early attempts to play music of the Classical period on early instrumets: cf Hogwood's horrible Mozart cycle) I feel in a position to make a reasoned comparison.
Perhaps unsurprisingly no single set scores on every symphony - this is true for modern instrument performances and conductors, so why should the HIPsters be any different?
For me the most reliable guide to the Nine, though, is undoubtedly Franz Brüggen. He may not be as well recorded as the others, and his set appeared, with little publicity, in dribs and drabs spread over several years, but he seems to me to be the only conductor to put the music before the musicology.
Brüggen, for example, refuses to join in the "who can dream up the loopiest tempo for the alla marcia in the finale of the Ninth?" game which fatally undermines the versions by Norrington, Hogwood and Gardiner. Indeed, in the liner notes to Brüggen's Ninth you will search in vain for any mention of the word "metronome" - significant, surely?
Norrington's set appeared first; its highlights are undoubtedly the Second and Eighth - the first disc to appear. I am quite partial to Norrington's Pastoral and the First with which it is coupled, although he never quite sounds relaxed enough in the former.
Elsewhere, as with several others, he falls victim to the slavish belief in Beethoven's metronome markings. There is much that can be said on this subject - it has been suggested that Beethoven's metronome was faulty; it has even been suggested that Beethoven and his brother were confused as to whether the top or bottom of the metronome's weight indicated the correct reading; it is certainly true that he added the markings to the earlier symphonies well after publication and after he had become deaf - I shall content myself by pointing out that, in my opinion, a performance must stand on its own merits, not by how closely it follows the letter of the score (metronome markings included), but by how much of the spirit it conveys.
Norrington, it seems to me, is particularly unsuccessful in the Eroica and, most of all, the Ninth, where his observations of the metronome markings lead him to a slow movement which is so quick as simply to skate the surface of the spritiual depths and to a completely fatuous "Turkish music" section in the finale, which is so slow that one feels like leaping up and making tea while they decide whether they're ever going to invite the tenor to join in.
Hogwood's cycle I resisted for some time: after all, I hated his Mozart. It is, considering my expectations, surprisingly good and most of the early and middle symphonies - specifically Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 - all come out well.
Unfortunately, Hogwood lets us down where it perhaps counts the most: the Eroica (too dry), the Pastoral (too tense) and the Ninth, where he chooses much the same tempi as Norrington, with much the same results.
And so to Gardiner, the answer - if you are to believe the publicity - to a maiden's prayer.
I admired Gardiner's Mozart symphonies greatly, but was disappointed by his Missa Solemnis which seemed to me to miss much of the profundity. And so it is with the symphonies. Again the early symphonies come across well; in fact there really isn't much to choose between the major players in either of the first two symphonies.
With the Eroica, however, comes the first stumbling block and Gardiner fares little better than either Norrington or Hogwood. His first movement, as somebody else has remarked, feels like a downhill bicycle race, so rushed does it sound - although, strangely his tempo is actually slower than those of Albert Coates or Hermann Scherchen. But perhaps it is not so strange: they were great conductors; I don't believe that Gardiner is. His funeral march is also very quick and sounds jaunty rather than tragic. Oddly - or again, perhaps not, as they arguably contain the least problematic music - the scherzo and finale come off much better.
Gardiner's Fifth, Seventh and Eighth are high on excitement, although they strike me as short on insights; the big surprise is his Pastoral, where he manages to make his brisk tempi sound more relaxed than either Norrington or Hogwood can.
Disaster strikes again, though, in the Ninth, which, for me, is simply horrible, no matter how well sung it is - and it is well sung. (Mind you, the Carnegie Hall Ninth which Gardiner conducted last year and was broadcast by PBS in North America was even worse: tempos more extreme, to the extent that the poor tenor couldn't keep up in the alla marcia)
If I had to compare the HIP conductors to some of their modern instrument forebears - and don't take this too literally, please - I'd compare Brüggen to Furtwägler (perhaps it's the umlaut in the name) for his flexibility of tempo and spirituality. Hogwood is perhaps the Solti of the period performance crowd, eliciting an analytical, at times over-bright sound from his band; Norrington is perhaps the most difficult to find an analogue for: Joseph Krips, perhaps, capable of the occasional insight but often too bland for comfort. Gardiner I have no hesitation in comparing to (late) Toscanini: hard-driven, at times downright unpleasant - and grossly overrated.
If you must buy a set, buy Brüggen.
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Complete "Historical" Sets
Historic recordings: aha, now this is a different kettle of fish. By historic I mean, in general, recordings made in the pre-stereo era, i.e. before the late ཮s. If you have never heard any of these, then I suggest you listen to some examples before purchasing something which you may find unlistenable.
You should also be aware that some countries, Italy in particular, have very lax copyright laws compared to others. This means that certain, usually cheaper, historical CDs have not been taken from the original masters but from sources of a dubious nature, and the transferring of the music, usually from 78s, may have been done with less care than is necessary. I shall mention a couple of these but you must be aware that you take a risk in buying them.
Unfortunately, of course, many of the greatest pre-LP recordings are not currently available: Weingartner's (mainly) 1930s (mainly) VPO cycle, for example, has been out of the catalogue for some years and the 1940 Mengelberg/Concertgebouw set was briefly available on CD but seems to have disappeared again.
Several historic cycles, however, are available - many of these were not originally recorded as a cycle (this is essentially an LP-era phenomenon).
The Toscanini set with the NBC Symphony Orchestra (just reissued on 5 mid-price RCA CDs) suffers somewhat from a dryish sound - even though they were recorded in Carnegie Hall rather than the infamous studio 8H where Toscanini liked to record. The performances date from the late 1940s and early 1950s (Toscanini retired in 1954 and died in 1957). Personally, I believe him to be a somewhat overrated conductor, particularly in North America, where he seems to have been marketed by RCA & NBC as the last word on classical music. (See Joseph Horowitz's Book "Understanding Toscanini" for more on this - and evidence that I am not alone in this opinion.) Furthermore his influence on subsequent generations of conductors has, it seems to me, been largely for the bad, but that is properly the subject of another article.
Highlights of Toscanini's set are the Fifth and Seventh symphonies. Be warned: the Second symphony is a "portmanteau" of two performances, from 1949 and 1952! I am also particularly unenchanted by his 'Pastoral', it sounds, as a player in the pre-war New York Philharmonic once remarked, as if he "just couldn't wait to get to the storm": this is the countryside viewed from inside an air-conditioned limousine.
The Furtwängler set - shared between the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and available on separate mid-price EMI CDs also has its ups and downs. In particular the Second and Eighth symphonies are taken from poorly-recorded live performances in 1948. The benefits, however, outweigh the disadvantages and there are particularly fine versions of the First, 'Eroica', Fourth, Fifth and Seventh symphonies. The Pastoral is a little slow and not to all tastes - although it remains my all-time favourite version. The Ninth is the legendary 1951 performance recorded live at the reopening (after the war) of the Bayreuth festival.
I personally consider Furtwängler the greatest conductor of the century (with the possible exception of Mahler, who unfortunately died too early to leave any records) and I make no apologies for selecting so many of his recordings as historic first choices. Some people disagree, finding him wayward; if you get the chance to listen to at least one of his recordings first, then do so.
Other "historical" complete sets include a Paris set by Carl Schuricht (EMI, mono) which is very fine indeed; Karajan's 1950s Philharmonia cycle (EMI, mono except for the Eighth) for many, including myself, the finest of his tours through The Nine.
Finally, two cycles which should be reissued: firstly the Boston SO under William Steinberg - a much underrated conductor - and secondly Andre Cluytens' early 60s BPO cycle. Both of these are really excellent, well recorded and intelligently directed. The Eighth from the Cluytens set masqueraded for a number of years on a US pirate label as being conducted by Furtwängler. The fact that so many people could accept it as such is an indication of the quality of Cluytens's work.
I keep hearing tales of sightings of various individual symphonies from Cluytens's set on Artist Profile and similar EMI imprints, but am not aware fo a complete reissue as yet.
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