When people think of the conductor
Eugen Jochum they think first of his
Bruckner and of the vast melodies, the enormous harmonies, the endless sequences, the eternal tempos, and the infinite lengths of his interpretations of that late nineteenth century Austrian peasant mystic's symphonies.
Jochum's two complete cycles of
Bruckner's symphonies -- one in the '60s for Deutsche Grammophon and the other in the '70s for EMI -- are commonly held by devotees to be the greatest ever recorded. At the time, however,
Jochum's name was in many ways even more closely linked with
Beethoven's. He recorded the complete cycle of
Beethoven's symphonies three times -- first in the '50s for DG, then in the '60s for Philips, and finally in the '70s for EMI -- but when they think of him, many people have trouble remembering
Jochum recorded them even once, much less with the
Berlin Philharmonic, the
Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the
London Philharmonic. The relevant question, though, is what does the echt Brucknerian
Jochum do with
Beethoven?