Solti's Beethoven Seventh

Back in the late 1960s, when I started trying to build up a collection of classical recordings, a new vinyl LP cost $16.00, more or less.  I felt that I had to save up my pennies and buy wisely, usually guided by recommendations in whatever magazines I could find, and eventually guided by my sense, as my collection grew, of what I liked and what I liked less -- for had I had money enough then, it would have been nice to buy more than one recording of pieces of music that I found accessible.  As it was, though, I stuck with Szell and Karajan for the Beethoven symphonies -- the 1960s DG Karajan recordings, that is -- and was sufficiently satisfied with them to refrain from adding other versions.  As a result, recordings by Walter, Haitink, Jochum, and Bernstein went by the board, despite my having read positive reviews of some of them.  It never occurred to me to seek out used copies.  I assumed that they would probably be warped or scratched, as my own LPs tended to become over time.  But the CD revolution changed all that -- used CDs can give excellent sound and will continue to do so long after I will be beyond hearing them.  So it was amazing to me recently to pick up for under $3.00 ( and 2017 dollars at that!) a copy of Solti's digital recording from the late 1980s of Beethoven's Seventh and Eighth Symphonies.  By this time, I had quite a lot of Solti's Wagner, Mahler, and Strauss -- and I enjoyed them -- but I had in mind comments I had read years ago about Solti's conducting being "tense" or "overdriven" in earlier music, and so I had never bothered with his Beethoven recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Two earlier purchases led me to give his Beethoven a try:  I had bought (also cheap) his recording of Mendelssohn's Third and Fourth Symphonies, and his first recording of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutti, which I found very enjoyable.  I like Beethoven's Seventh a lot, so I got it.

Well, it's a very fine recording, in excellent digital sound.  If you think of recorded sound on a spectrum ranging from warm to bright, then Solti is on the bright side, but never to the extent of sounding blaring or glassy.  If you prefer "warm," then Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra on the BIS label are very satisfying, and that recording, like Solti's, has plenty of clarity and energy.  Solti's tempi seem very well-judged to me, and at no time did I feel that anything was rushed or tense.  I liked especially his tempo for the second movement, marked allegretto but often taken too slow. For example, Eugen Jochum, a great conductor, with the Concertgebouw in the 1960s, seems draggy in this movement.  Bernstein's New York recording from the early 1960s paces the allegretto better, as does Carlos Kleiber in the 1970s, with the Vienna Philharmonic, but in both cases the sound doesn't have the clarity and detail of the more modern recordings like Solti's or Vanska's.  For all that, Kleiber's CD pairing of the Fifth and Seventh is perhaps my favorite recording of both -- the way the brass is placed in the overall orchestral balance is very effective -- but Solti's recording isn't to be sneezed at.  I can imagine a listener preferring it, almost on the grounds of the recorded sound alone.  All of the versions I mention here will give much pleasure (as will some others I haven't mentioned).  You can indulge or discover your tastes at the prices these things go for nowadays.  It's a great time for collectors.

The Eighth Symphony on this disc is a well-played, rather straight account.  For some reason, I've always liked Karajan's Eighth from his 1970s set (the second of his three sets for DG) -- it just seems a bit more playful.  But Solti is fine, with the sound good and the dynamic contrasts well pointed.