![]() For curious readers, the Seventh and Ninth here are not the famous ones at his last concert and the Berlin Wall, respectively. For overall consistency, Lenny never gave us better Beethoven. ![]() I disagree with critics and overzealous Amazon shoppers that the sound is too pretty or bland. The Vienna Philharmonic is the star of this show. ![]() The bottom line is this if you want the conductor's finest symphonic Beethoven efforts in one place, hunt this set down and love it forever, allowing mounds of reissue sets to pass you by. 1" released this year finally puts these performances all in the same place – for the first time in over 20 years, mind – but does nothing about the "startlingly uneven" part of the late-career Bernstein discography. The 60-disc "Leonard Bernstein Collection: Vol. More recently, Universal packaged the symphonies in the "Leonard Bernstein Collectors' Edition" and the overtures in a startlingly uneven box on the same line. Since that time, they have been seen on "The Leonard Bernstein Edition", "DG Panorama", and more. It is also the most artistically consistent way to acquire them, which is amazing considering this box dates from about 1990. It is amazing that previous releases have not corrected this recording mistake.This is the original issue of these performances, with all nine symphonies and what amounts to a full disc of overtures. However, I am now satisfied that the volumes are where they should be. Restoring the correct volume levels was like doing a crossword puzzle. ![]() Surprisingly, I found that the original recordings had nearly a dozen changes in recording volume made, I suppose, to avoid saturation. 3 is also a great performance, although perhaps not quite as great as the Eroica. Still, it required removal of the "boxy" sound, as well as controlling some standing waves that often crept into Musikverein performances of this time. Fortunately, this recording has often had good sound, although there have been so many releases that some, inevitably, are not of good quality. All other performances, including other Furtwängler ones, pale next to this one. When I heard this performance of the 3rd Symphony for the first time as a young man in a Turnabout LP, I began to understand, for the first time, the role of the last movement, and thus the meaning of the symphony as a whole. ![]()
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