This disc offers an inexpensive sampler of one of the classic cycles of
Beethoven's symphonies, the one made by conductor
Herbert Blomstedt leading the
Staatskapelle Dresden in the late '70s. Emerging from behind the Iron Curtain, the set was always somewhat underrated but was known as a connoisseur's
Beethoven cycle.
Blomstedt's readings were what used to be called conservative in the best sense of the word: deliberate, technically very closely attended, detailed, restrained. The performance of the Symphony No. 6 on this disc is a real bargain, a vast tableau of musical imagery that displays a startling level of detail but never loses its broad warmth. The "Szene am Bach" movement, track 6, is remarkably gentle and flexible, avoiding any hint of clockwork motion and setting up the simple 3/4 recurring melody with a lovely languid hesitation at the beginning. Various reissues later, the sound of the originals is a bit dulled. And
Blomstedt's Symphony No. 5 in C minor is perhaps the least successful one in the set. It's of a piece with the others, but you'll have to get the headlong intensity of
Carlos Kleiber out of your head in order to hear it as anything other than extremely laid-back. Still and all, listeners looking to explore the classic Central European interpretations of
Beethoven can hardly do better than this as a starter, especially for the price.