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One of the worst modern-instrument Eriocas you've probably never heard

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on March 23, 2011 at 17:33:28

Man, it seems like I'm dissin' the VPO these days, ever since their "electronically assisted" concert in Berkeley last month, but really, it's just coincidence that I happened to buy one of their latest Blu-Ray discs, the first volume of the Beethoven Symphonies conducted by Christian Thielemann, and that it turns out to be such a turkey!



Turning to the Eroica (and it's true of the first two symphonies as well), I've rarely heard a performance where the intensity level has been this low - really unbelievable in this respect, with dramatic points of arrival so unprepared and few if any textural insights or surprises. I don't learn anything from watching Thielemann conduct, and in fact, his frequent underhand gestures look awfully gauche to me. (His pose on the cover above is typical.) Then there's the much vaunted discussion between between musicologist Joachim Kaiser and Thielemann. I've read some posts where the writers consider this aspect of the disc a big selling point, with lots of insights. To me, it comes across as smug and self-congratulatory - a real turn-off.

To be honest, I was not an admirer of Thielemann even before I purchased this blu-ray (his Schumann symphonies on DG suffer from the same debilitating lassitude), but then I saw a couple of Thielemann performances on YT that seemed promising. I shouldn't have been tempted. If this guy is the great young Austro-German hope of conductors today, then may the gods help us!

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