Beethoven: Symphony no 6 "Pastorale"

Beethoven: Symphony no 6
Schubert: Symphony no 5
Wiener Philharmoniker
Karl Böhm, conductor.







My CDs were stolen just yesterday since I left my bag at classroom. Along with the bag are my USB thumbdrive, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring by Leonard Bernstein/LSO, Rafael Kubelik's Dvorak symphonies 7, 8 and 9 on two CDs (DECCA and DG) and Furtwangler's wartime Beethoven 5 and 7. I hope those thiefs treasured those damned CDs because those were like my kids. I always shudder to think if the whole collection of my hard bought classical CDs were to wiped out in fire or something (bbrrrrrrr!!!).

Thankfully, I didn't kept this recording in my bag (I should've let my friend burned the Stravinsky CD beforehand). It is one of the most gorgeous recordings ever made. This is supposedly the benchmark of Beethoven's Pastorale, but then Klemperer and Cluytens had the same claim as well. I would go mad without this recording! After all, this has the best oboe soloist I've ever heard on record. Somebody please give me the name of that player!

The tempos employed in the Pastorale is swift, especially for the first movement which is contrary to the spacious, Zen-like approach by Furtwangler with the same orchestra. I always thought Beethoven's original tempo marking for the first movement is perfect, with it's clocklike momentum which isn't too rushed. But no complaints with Bohm and the second movement is literally sublime, you can doze off in countryside forever with gorgeous wind solos throughout. No sir, I don't think the VPO strings are dominant at all. The storm movement is furious and the Thanksgiving thereafter provided perfect end to one of the finest symphony ever written. As for the Schubert Fifth, it is a graceful counterpart to the Pastorale. I'd rather prefer Viennese approach and not too Germanic heavy-handedness for this work.

Technical: 10
Interpretation: 9
Recording: 9