Weingartner Beethoven symphony recordings

[Barbirollians]

I have bought all these on Naxos over the last year except the Eroica which appears to be out of stock and what a complete joy they are.

Listening to the Fifth this morning - what a fabulous performance especially of the Andante with the British Symphony orchestra.

I was intrigued to read that the Pastoral however was recorded in 1927 in the Scala Theatre,London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I thought that orchestra was founded by Beecham after the war when the LPO made it clear to Beecham it was not going to give up its self governing status ?

Does anyone know anything of a predecessor or might it be one of these false names for contractual purposes ?

[Dave2002]

I have some of the Weingartner recordings - good!

Re the RPO, wikipedia gives the foundation year as 1946. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_...onic_Orchestra

The same source indicates that even the LPO wasn't in existence in 1927, but was founded in 1932.

The LSO dates from 1904.

[cloughie]

I have some of the Weingartner recordings - good!

Re the RPO, wikipedia gives the foundation year as 1946. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_...onic_Orchestra

The same source indicates that even the LPO wasn't in existence in 1927, but was founded in 1932.

The LSO dates from 1904.

The Royal Philharmonic Society was established in 1813 so maybe the name was used for what was presumably a scratch orchestra or a pseudonym for another orchestra for contractual reasons!

[gradus]

The Royal Philharmonic Society was established in 1813 so maybe the name was used for what was presumably a scratch orchestra or a pseudonym for another orchestra for contractual reasons!

Sounds likely, it summons up memories of that great conductor Havergesse who appeared on a number of records in the 60's.

[mikealdren]

An elderly (well younger than I am now!) violin teacher I knew in the 1960s had played in various orchestras including the Hallé and he maintained that Weingartner was the best conductor he ever played under.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My first experience of Beethoven’s 9th was a Weingartner set of 78s, which had been passed on to me. The snag wasn’t so much the frequent side changes; one disc was missing from the finale.

Weingartner gets a bad press on some quarters as the man who had the “
audacity to “correct” Beethoven’s scores. All he did was to adjust the lines in places where the composer appeared to have been limited by the range of the instruments of his time, or by possible limitations of the players’ technique. Love them or hate them, FW’s modifications have become widespread.

[Barbirollians]

The Ninth is also striking though I have to admit that I would regard the soloists in the final movement as perhaps being a bit of an acquired taste.

[cloughie]

I listened to Eroica thanks to Naxos Library streaming - excellent!
Barbs - your solution to the 9th is to listen to first 3 movts only!