Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra recently ended their London cycle of the Beethoven symphonies at the Barbican, having also given complete cycles over the last couple of months in Leipzig, Paris and Vienna. The recordings on this set were made in the Gewandhaus between 2007 and 2009, but the musical principles that have characterised the recent live performances come across equally vividly on disc.
This is above all, an explosively swift cycle. Chailly is utterly faithful to Beethoven's metronome markings – even those, such as the one for the finale of the Second, that were almost certainly impossible to realise at the beginning of the 19th century. Occasionally – in the opening movement of the Eroica, for instance – the speed might seem to rob the music of some of its gravity, but the tautness of the playing, the definition of its detail – especially from the woodwind – and the phenomenal range of dynamics the Gewandhaus Orchestra has at its command mean that weight and drama are always available to Chailly when he requires them. The sound gets an added warmth from the Gewandhaus acoustic, but however thunderous some of the climaxes, whether in the early symphonies anticipating the revolutions to come later, or realising works such as the Fifth, Seventh and Ninth in all their majesty, the textures of this outstanding orchestra remain miraculously transparent.
The result is a Beethoven cycle that's up there with the best modern-orchestra versions of recent times, by Abbado (for Deutsche Grammophon) and Rattle (EMI), and which also manages the seemingly impossible – making the music seem freshly minted without any concessions at all to period performance. The set also includes seven of Beethoven's overtures – the first two Leonora ones are omitted – and it is remarkable to hear comparative rarities such as The Ruins of Athens and King Stephen played with the same intensity as the symphonies. They provide the icing on the cake.
