BEETHOVEN, L. van: Symphony No. 3 / Egmont / Overture to Collin's Coriolan (Vienna Radio Symphony, Billy)

Album review

These may not be the greatest, deepest, or profoundest recordings of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony and Egmont and Coriolan overtures ever made -- it would take a veritable miracle to displace Furtwängler, Toscanini, Klemperer, Walter, Weingartner, and a host of other golden age conductors in the pantheon of great Beethoven recordings. And yet these 2006 recordings by French-born conductor Bertrand de Billy and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra are undeniably great. De Billy is a master of the conductor's craft, but much more importantly, he's also a master of Beethoven's music, understanding his mercurial moods, his Dionysic ecstasy, and his Olympian nobility, and knowing that these characteristics form one of the supreme artist heroes of Western culture. Thus in de Billy's Eroica, there's terrific energy in the Allegro con brio, gripping pathos in the Marcia funebre, tremendous gusto in the Scherzo, and awe-inspiring magnificence in the concluding variations on the Prometheus theme, while there's the darkest tragedy and brightest triumph in his Egmont and darkest tragedy and blackest despair in his Coriolan. The Vienna Radio Symphony responds to de Billy with undisguised joy, ripping into the rhythms, tearing into the themes, reveling in the developments, and exulting in the climaxes. These may not be the greatest, deepest, or profoundest recordings of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony and Egmont and Coriolan overtures ever made -- but they are certainly as real, honest, and true as the best ever made. Recorded in cooperation with the ORF by Dieter Oehms himself in 2006, this Oehms' super audio CD is likewise as real, honest, and true as the best ever made.
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