Vanska opts for conservative tempi with a broad and deep sonority. The BIS engineering places in entire orchestra in the back, with the instruments using equal ground in the sound window. The percussion is equal to the strings are equal to the brass. Vanska makes no historical performance claims outside of his desire to stay faithful to the original score. As the history of recording has shown, this can mean a lot of things.

Vanska's Fifth (coupled here with the Fourth Symphony) is deliberately and thoughtfully paced. The transition from the third to fourth movements is seamless and powerful, exuding all of the majesty intended by the composer. Such conducting consideration typically leads to a darker, more rich interpretation, one that shines its light from the Romantic side of Wagner rather than the classical side of Haydn. The result is a full-bodied American performance captured in living color by the crack BIS engineers. This is warm surround-sound Beethoven.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 8 [Hybrid SACD]
Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Philippe Herreweghe
Pentatone, 2007

Philippe Herreweghe could not have approached his Fifth Symphony any more differently. Herreweghe is best know for his period instrument recordings of the Baroque repertorie with his Colligum Vocale. Like Nikolaus Harnoncourt before him, Herreweghe takes his period instrument experience and applies it to the modern orchestra, in this case with dazzeling effect.

Herreweghe takes allegro con brio seriously, clicking of the symphony opening at a fast pace. Sonically this is three dimensional Beethoven the listen can walk around in. Where Vanska's Fifth is a beautiful painting, Herreweghe's is an interactive landscape where tone fly around the listener as he or she is walking through. Herreweghe's approach and attack are fresh and clean with little of the romantic excess usually reserved for this piece in the 20th century. The engineering ensures discreet separation between insturments and instrument groups.

This is Beethoven at a trot. While thoughtfully considered, Herreweghe throws this masterpiece off with a fearlessness that never breaks down. The symphony makes sense. While not a high wire act, Herreweghe's Fifth is nevertheless a bracing experience for the listener, who will hear this piece and wonder when it will fall apart, but it never does and in fact is executed perfectly. The 5.1.1 Surround Sound is stunning. One might expect Herreweghe's Ninth to require a new Holy Day of Obligation.