The Marcia Funebre: Adagio Assai was a sensation when Beethoven introduced it as the second movement, blowing the sonata form perfected by Haydn and Mozart into ravenous particles. Vanska approaches the movement with a measured determination in the low strings. The conductor and orchestra continue to produce this performance in the third and final movements as if deftly carved from marble. Vanska achieves a heroic resolution to the Eroica that is as stately as it is modern.
Ludwig van Beethoven - Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 [Hybrid SACD]
Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Philippe Herreweghe, Pentatone, 2007
Philippe Herreweghe continues his Beethoven Symphony survey from the vantage point of modern instruments confined by period practices. This was previously accomplished by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his Chamber Orchestra of Europe with his set from the early 1990s. At the time Harnoncourt made quite a stir with his interpretations. Herreweghe is doing the same thing at the close of the 2000s with the incorporation of natural horns and baroque tympani.
Where Herreweghs's previously release Fifth was a piece of music the listener could enter and walk around in, seeing (hearing) the Beethovenian nuances from several different angles, his performance of the Third Symphony is a sonic affair where the listener stands outside the work, circling it and seeing it as the monument it is.
The symphony is presented as a crystalline palace into which the listener may see (hear) its treasures without achieving the intimacy allowed in Herreweghs's Fifth. The Royal Flemish Philharmonic weaves a seamless tapestry of sounds with oboes becoming violas and low horns becoming cellos. Where Vanska is decidedly determined and thoughtful, Herreweghe again performs a high wire act: he initiates the symphony and allows it to develop with its own inertia, directing the performance only enough to keep it from spinning out of control. This makes for an exciting and essential reading of this Beethoven masterpiece.
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