This has been a labour of love for me - the complete boxed set of Norrington's Beethoven symphonies, as performed on original instruments and in period style. I think it's magnificent, but I know that not everybody loves the whole "original instruments" concept. And sometimes I agree with them - but not in this case!

I still love my Karajan 1963 set, but this is the perfect complement. Beautifully recorded, by excellent musicians and singers, with a truly authentic sound. Some of the tempos may sound strangely slow (or occasionally strangely fast) to those of us used to more modern styles, but Norrington goes into great detail about why he has followed Beethoven's original metronome markings, and his explanation makes sense.

Quote:
Beethoven left a most detailed set of metronome marks and he insisted on their importance, being reported as looking on the metronome 'as a welcome means of assuring the performance of my works everywhere at tempi conceived by me, which to my great regret have so often been misunderstood' ... Our historical method is to see what the metronome markings tell us about the piece, not decide they must be wrong because they don't fit 20th century 'tradition'.


He also makes an excellent justification for using original instruments and historical style:

Quote:
The point about playing Beethoven on old instruments, of course, is to make him sound new; to recapture much of the exhilaration and sheer disturbance that his music certainly generated in his day.
Every single instrument was subtly different from today's equivalent, and each was perfectly adapted to the world of Classical music. The strings, cleaner and more plaintive, articulate easily and expressively. The woodwind each has an individual colour, creating character and clarity of ensemble within the section. The horns' hand-stopped notes give a vivid, dramatic variety to their playing, while the timpani, small and beaten with hard sticks, sound as if they have come straight from the field of Waterloo. This sheer variety of sound is essential to Beethoven, who was using a full orchestra that had only recently matured under the hands of Haydn and Mozart. The interaction between these various elements needs to be not just a beautiful sound, but an exciting, characterful dialogue.


Is this THE definitive interpretation of the symphonies - the one you MUST have? Probably not. But is it worth having? ABSOLUTELY! It brings these symphonies into a new light, it provides contrast to the sound we have all become so accepting of in recent years, and it surely sounds more like what Beethoven must have intended when he first wrote and had the pieces performed.

Here's an Amazon review:
Quote:
I find Norrington's performances of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th symphonies to be exceptionally well-conceived, full of passion--as Beethoven would have wanted--and largely faithful to the original scores. Admittedly, later sets by Bruggen and Gardiner may be more consistently well-played than this set, but you could say that about many of pioneering period performances from the 1980s--including even Pinnock's critically acclaimed Brandenburg Concertos, or Hogwood's groundbreaking set of Mozart symphonies, and to do so misses the point. What was so exciting about the early days of the period movement was the extraordinary sense of musical discovery that these performances brought to both listeners and musicians alike--regarding the original scores. As much as I loved my Karl Bohm recordings of Mozart symphonies, the first time that I heard Hogwood's recording of the "Prague" symphony was a revelation. No longer would Bohm's rather Brahmsian approach to these works suffice--clearly, this approach was not what Mozart had in mind. Indeed, it was as if I was hearing Mozart for the very first time. Yes, generally speaking, higher standards of performance were later attained, but there is still something remarkably exciting about many of these early recordings--whatever their flaws may be--and we shouldn't forget that, or how daringly new they were at the time.

One of the most fascinating recording projects of this period was Sir Roger Norrington's pioneering set of Beethoven symphonies with The London Classical Players. Here at long last--after a century and a half of neglect--was a conductor bravely determined to conduct these symphonies according to Beethoven's difficult metronome markings, and as played on the original instruments that Beethoven had composed for--that is, the very sounds that he must have had in his mind when he wrote this music down. Norrington astutely saw that Beethoven's original brass and percussion instruments play a crucially prominent role in these symphonies, and most importantly, that they cannot be tempered without diminishing the passionate intensity of the music itself. Thus, not only does Norrington faithfully adhere to the original scores and markings--come what may, but again and again throughout these performances, he encourages the brass and percussion sections to play full out--at their utmost intensity, and it is truly magnificent. (Finally a conductor who understands.)

However, that is not to say I loved everything about this set--I was disappointed with the 9th symphony, which can sound surprisingly cautious at times. Gardiner's superlative account on Archiv is a better choice here. And the 1st symphony could have been a little more lightly sprung in places--Bruggen is perhaps preferrable. Yet, none of the period conductors--with the exception of Norrington--were able to achieve the critical transition that occurs late in the 3rd movement of the 5th symphony--where the power of the human will triumphs over despair and suffering, if you will.

Those listeners who insist on the highest standards of period instrument playing will probably remain happiest with their Gardiner or Bruggen sets, and that is fine, but they will be missing something. Because more than any other Beethoven cycle, this one uniquely shows us just how much Beethoven used and adored the brass and percussion instruments of his day, and the sublime potential that he found in them for the expression of his musical thoughts. In addition, this set also shows us just how thrilling and dramatic it can be when this music is played very passionately and forcefully, in accordance with Beethoven's faster metronome markings, and particularly on the old instruments, which can better articulate these faster movements.


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Technical note

Originally I had intended to use EAC for this project - but the damn program drove me crazy! It's SO SLOW! And the DT database function never worked! So this has been ripped from the CDs using M4A MP3 Converter, and quite frankly I'm completely happy with how it's turned out - I think it sounds just fine!

Naturally, you don't have to download the whole torrent if you don't want to - each of the 6 discs is in their own Folder. But I'd strongly recommend getting the whole thing - yes it's huge, but it's worth it.

Enjoy!