Chailly Beethoven 26.10.2011

[Barbirollians]

Only caught the Seventh . It struck me as very good and I enjoyed it a lot but not so much that I was tempted to go and buy the CD box.

Any other views?

[Karafan]

I was left curiously unmoved. It sounded rather routine to my ears. And the huge gaps between movements sapped what little frisson of excitement Chailly had managed to engender. Nope, I'm afraid if this is anything to go by I shall be forced to give his set a miss, sadly.

K.

[Barbirollians]

I know exactly what you mean Karafan . I thought it was very well played and with transparent airy textures but deeply moving and/or thrilling the 7th wasn't .

[gedsmk]

I was in the hall. Presumably this is yet another case of BBC engineers not knowing how to transmit from the Barbican? From where I was sitting is was a spellbinding, vigorous, "fresh as new paint" reading of both symphonies. The atmosphere in the hall was tremendous, in contrast to what seems to have come across in the comments above. So many details in the woodwind that it would be impossible to list them all. Perhaps on the box set the gap between movements is less frisson sapping?

[Nick Armstrong]

I was in the hall. Presumably this is yet another case of BBC engineers not knowing how to transmit from the Barbican? From where I was sitting is was a spellbinding, vigorous, "fresh as new paint" reading of both symphonies. The atmosphere in the hall was tremendous, in contrast to what seems to have come across in the comments above. So many details in the woodwind that it would be impossible to list them all. Perhaps on the box set the gap between movements is less frisson sapping?

Interesting - good for you! I just listened to the first movement of No 7, it was trim without being riveting and the timps sounded almost ludicrously obtrusive.

[jayne lee wilson]

Only heard no.1, on R3 HDs.
"Fresh as new paint" only if that means clean, flat and featureless... heard at home it was light-textured, swift, precise, very literal... not much creative (re-)interpretation going on. Not much sense on the webcast of any character to say, wind solos, or depth of string sonority, even within the context of a rather HIPS reading. Oddly enough the Schleiermacher piece came across quite boldly, full and dynamic with good presence. Where were you in the hall gedsmk (not doubting your experience, things are often very different in-hall)? The R3 perspective seemed the usual mid-hall approach.

[gedsmk]

the sound scape on iplayer isn't anything like as good, - it sounds like there's something "missing" in the middle? But I suppose if you were listening on the HD 320AAC stream you would have had a much better sense of the dynamic range. there's a disastrous microphone malfunction during the 3rd movement of nr 7, approx at 1hr 42 min. I was in my usual favourite seat in the middle of the balcony. Since the re-design I find the acoustics up there suit me much better.

[Bryn]

This is truly pathetic. I got a response email from the iPlayer Support Team to say they had had a number of complaints about the problems with low data rate for some Radio 3 programmes, and that they were working on resolving them. So what happens when they eventually get last night's Live in Concert up and running? They restrict it to the lowest audio quality of 56kbps HE-AAC. Fortunately, given the iPlayer team's recent poor performance I scheduled the Pur Bug to save the 182kbps mp2 offered by DAB. Not up to HD Sound quality, for sure, but considerably better than what the iPlayer is currently offering.

Again, congratulations and thanks for those programmes made available at 320kbps AAC-LC, but what a mess these low data rate offerings are.

Oh, and I did try listening in HD Sound last night but it crashed here twice during the broadcast. Probably not the Beeb's fault though. I forgot to cancel various automated software updates.

[Thomas Roth]

I have listened to this cycle on CD twice and it is incredibly exciting. I never thought I would hear so many new things in this music. Sensational!

[Peter Katin]

I was left curiously unmoved. It sounded rather routine to my ears. And the huge gaps between movements sapped what little frisson of excitement Chailly had managed to engender. Nope, I'm afraid if this is anything to go by I shall be forced to give his set a miss, sadly.

K.

I agree. And the excessive speeds didn't make for excitement - if Chailly really likes going round Beethoven corners on two wheels, it's not for me. Of course, I wasn't there but I found the orchestra's overall tone rather "grey". I doubt if I want to listen to any more but perhaps I should try.

[Alison]

Listening to these performances I was reminded of a favourite old Richard Osborne phrase -


'lack of real Beethovenian tension'