This 1988 recording from the former Yugoslavia has gone through several packaging cycles at Naxos and now appears with a mysterious image with a photo of a natural arch superimposed on a generic mountain range graphic, and an equally mysterious floating word, "selection," on the spine. Selection for what? From what? The inside of the booklet contains nothing whatsoever other than a track listing. In any event, you get what you pay for, and what you get here is a performance typical of those Naxos often released in its early days. It is by an Eastern European orchestra that, though not celebrated, is more than competent. The sound leaves a lot to be desired. And the interpretation of the warhorse
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 by conductor
Richard Edlinger is decidedly unorthodox -- clipped down, oddly shaped in many places, but certainly reflective of an original rethinking of the work. The orchestra is smaller than usual, and
Edlinger aims for a light, spontaneous quality -- not the norm for the Fifth Symphony. The tempo often seems to shift slightly, but it's really the result of emphasis being laid on some unusual detail. The fermata in the opening material is promptly cut off, and the movement as a whole has a businesslike quality that strips away Romantic gigantism. (Indeed the performance in some respects resembles the
Beethoven symphonies offered by period-instrument ensembles in recent years, although it was made before most of those came along.) The slow movement comes off the best, with an airy, motile quality; the scherzo, which seems to lurch from idea to idea, is the least successful. Probably not a good choice for one's first
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 (which seems to be the market it's aimed at), but intriguing enough to be worth the few dollars it'll cost you.