This recording is the same as that originally released on the
Talent label on DOM 2020 100, a release reviewed
very thoroughly both by Michael
Greenhalgh and Gwyn
Parry-Jones, and I find myself in agreement with most of
both these critics’ comments.
This is one of those releases which has many fine features,
but ultimately retains some elements of frustration. I’ve
enjoyed hearing it greatly, and while I have been playing it
often over the last few days in an attempt to clarify some ideas
and opinions it hasn’t palled, which says much in its
favour. In the first place, the recording is a very fine one,
and will provide sonic satisfaction on the best of SACD systems
as well as being vibrant in standard stereo. The Royal Flemish
Philharmonic is a superb orchestra and plays its socks off for
Herreweghe. His style is of the historically informed variety,
which basically means taking the vibrato-free strings for what
they are - cooler and more glassy sounding rather than the warmth
of any amount of older recordings. Taken in isolation, the tempi
are in general well judged, and in fact the timings are quite
similar to my main comparison, another SACD recording with Osmo
Vänskä on the BIS label (see review)
which this recording actually pre-dates by a good ten years
or so.
Where Vänskä is most often more interesting than Herreweghe
is in his feel for Beethoven’s contrasts of mood. This
is summed up with the opening of the Symphony No.4, where
the slow introduction is full of tension and expectation, the
following section having some of the drama and easy lyricism
which returns in Beethoven’s later ‘pastoral’
symphony. With Herreweghe the opening has less feeling of direction,
and, while moody and searching, doesn’t really engage
the imagination as it could. The subsequent contrasts are dramatic,
but rather more busy and energetic than really moulded into
the micro-climates of mood captured by Vänskä.
These are all subtle, almost alchemic changes, and I don’t
really want to suggest that Herreweghe is particularly weak.
What I like about his way with Beethoven is how it somehow brings
out operatic aspects in the music I hadn’t heard in other
versions. Philippe Herreweghe is a choral conductor in origin,
but this doesn’t mean he can’t conduct a decent
orchestral performance, and his vocal leanings perhaps manifest
themselves in other ways to those I have in mind, but which
have been implied by other critics. What I’m on about
is something we’ve become used to with interpretations
of the later symphonies of Mozart - connecting them to operas
contemporary with their composition. With Herreweghe’s
Beethoven there’s often a feeling of retrospection rather
than revolution, looking to classical forebears rather than
seeking to eke out a prescient romanticism: a combination which
can create an aura of dramatised and therefore ‘stage-like’
classicism. My feeling is that there’s always the potential
for an aria to commence just around the corner. The opening
of the Symphony No. 7 is a case in point, with a sense
of curtain-raising drama which is weightier than Vänskä,
but somehow less symphonic. Vänskä’s view is
the long one, which spans the entire movement and already has
a compass pointer showing a complex route to a satisfying conclusion.
Herreweghe revels in moments, bringing us lunges of dramatic
light and showing a stage set for narrative and action. The
only problem with this is that these are not operas, and Beethoven’s
stabs are born of developing repetitions which build a stunning
architecture over extended time. Where Herreweghe loses me is
in the similarity of his repetitions - each individually superb,
but not really moving us onwards and allowing glimpses of that
view from the top of the mountain which recalls the journey
to the peak, and somehow showing us the glorious view towards
the final point of arrival in the safe haven beyond.
Both of these symphonies have their juicy slow movements, but
I feel Herreweghe’s Adagio in the fourth symphony
is too matter-of-fact where Vänskä’s is full
of lyrical atmosphere. While the all-important Allegretto
in the seventh symphonyis good, itmisses some
of the potential for gravitas in the music again through lacking
the sense of architectural construction - not building to the
real money moments in the way Vänskä does by achieving
real beyond-the-grave hush in the earlier sections. The strings
sound at their thinnest in those counter-melodies above the
wind and brass chorale as well which is a shame, and that fugal
section from 5:43 I can take or leave - it’s all just
a bit soggy, not really ‘special’.
Going back to the Symphony No. 4 and the third movement
Allegro vivace and we hear Herreweghe in rumbustious
mood, bringing out plenty of larger-scale dynamic gestures which
promise to break out into either a storm or a peasant’s
dance of gratitude - we’re not quite sure which. Vänskä
is quieter in general, allowing the transitional progressions
room to develop, and the significant points to leap out with
their true weight. This also gives space for greater wit in
the development further on, where the wind ensemble talks to
the strings in a conversation about where to put the flowers
on the table - in the middle, or ‘just there’. The
strings always have the last word, but with Vänskä
you have the feeling that the winds take it all in good humour,
where with Herreweghe it takes the drum section and some tasty
brass to resolve the argument each time.
Enough fanciful commentary: my feeling is that this pair of
Beethoven symphonies has many fine qualities and is in no way
as bad as some critics would paint them, but neither do they
beat their close competitor in Osmo Vänskä. Herreweghe
is a fine conductor and he has a good orchestra with which to
work, but the very finest subtleties evade this particular recording.
If you are looking to collect this series and like Herreweghe’s
approach then you hopefully won’t be disappointed by this
release, but if you are coming to this repertoire afresh and
looking for a fine SACD version then the BIS box is very hard
to beat.
Dominy Clements
Royal Flemish Philharmonic/Philippe Herreweghe
[75:40] 
