The battle of Minor vs Major

Hello my friends. I come to you this week with the first of a segment I'm going to title "Album of the *insert arbitrary time frame here*". This entry will be a review of a newly obtained recording of Beethoven's 5th symphony. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I did not have a recording of this piece. I took this a personal insult to myself as it is my favorite piece in the classical repertoire. I am also under the belief that every brass player in an orchestra should have their symphony cherry popped, so to speak, with this piece. It is the birth of brass as a major contributor to the group and of Romanticism. This is the first symphonic piece to include the trombone. In their mighty debut in the 4th movement, you can hear them saying "I am a trombone". You can sing it, seriously.

The recording I chose to pick up is a 200g virgin vinyl pressing from the original tape recording of the never released recording of Pierre Monteux conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1965.

Right away this recording draws you with a full, dark, rich sound on the now almost cliched "G-G-G-E flat". The interpretation is aggressive and in your face. The tension holds through not just the first movement, but the first three. The pacing of the second movement is very methodical and withdrawn. Though the movement is long, it does not feel it as it stays exciting and pompous. It holds the energy at stasis that was built during the first movement.

I flip the record and get to the real treat, of the third and forth movement. The third movement is firmly in minor and brings back the motif of the first movement, but in slightly different rhythm. After a fugue, the rumblings die down and an incredible crescendo builds to the the attacca forth movement.

HELLO BRASS! The fourth movement opens with a grand release of the tension from the last half hour with a C major arpeggio so loud that it knocks C minor out of your head. Its an emotional moment. Its cathartic and this performance is that. You can hear the trumpets more than normal in the first and second movement but they become a whisper in the third movement, only to take full control of performance in the opening four bars of the forth. A soaring horn sound so dark and rich that it brings chills, and of course fond memories of a friend. Chills at this point are running down my spine.

I truly believe this is probably as close as you're going to come to hearing this symphony as Beethoven desired for it to be heard. Violent, chaotic, good vs evil battle, packed with emotion. This record is full of suspense with masterful production quality. You can feel the orchestra. At the end of the first movement you can hear a collective sigh of relief from the group, as they probably can't even believe the intensity they just captured.

From what I can tell this was only released on vinyl. There are CD recordings of Monteux conducting Beethoven's Fifth, but I don't think they are the same as this one. The link to amazon for this product is here. It is a bit of a steep price but I would have paid $100 easily to have heard this live, so $33 with shipping and I can hear it over and over again is a bargain to me. Be warned though, if yo look up a photo of Monteux, he does look like Wilford Brimley. you be the judge: