Two decades ago Nikolaus Harnoncourt recorded one of the most original and satisfying Beethoven symphony cycles of our age, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. What an irony that he should have felt it necessary to retire last year without completing his return to those works with his own Concentus Musicus of Vienna. This single disc of the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies thus has special poignancy. The speeds are not different to the earlier set, but the transparency and detailing of the instruments has a cinematic quality. From the sublimely mysterious opening of the Fourth, to the electric coda of the last movement of the Fifth with added pauses, this recording burns with intensity and vitality.
