A new review about RCL release of Beethoven Symphony No. 6

October 5 2017

Beethoven L. V.: Symphony No.6 in F Major Op. 68 - Frontcover of RCL release

A Pastoral miracle
by L. D. Holder

This was the cycle that set the pace for performances of Beethoven which use modern instruments but which take into account all that has been learnt by the use of period instruments, of which Harnoncourt himself was a pioneer. It was greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm around ten years ago; more recently the feeling has been expressed that it is not holding up so well to the test of time.
It is not normally my practice, when listening to music I know so well, to follow with the score; later on the oracle may be consulted over specific points. It quickly became evident that in this Beethoven cycle specific points would be so frequent that the score was indispensable. These are performances that strike more for their small details than as a whole. So anyone who reads my notes below and thinks I am being pernickety, seizing upon niggling matters and ignoring the overall line, is invited to look up my other Beethoven symphony reviews on the site (there are quite a lot) and reflect that, if I adopt a different method here, it arises from the nature of the performances themselves.
I braced myself for an upfront arrival in the country. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I heard the gentle opening! At 13:07 we are in Klemperer (1957) territory (13:04), but the Klemperer conceals a host of subtle tempo modifications while Zimmermann is absolutely steady. The long crescendos and diminuendos are superbly controlled as are the dynamic gradations between piano and pianissimo on the one hand, and forte and fortissimo on the other. Nothing is allowed to disturb the serene, sublime atmosphere – sforzatos are carefully related to their context.
The Scene by the Brook is swift – this time Zimmermann’s 11:59 compares with the 11:56 of Keilberth, who is exactly on Beethoven’s metronome mark – but more than any other swift reading I know, this one succeeds in maintaining a mood of total serenity. After a while it actually comes to sound slow. Like Weingartner and Keilberth, Zimmermann separates the three-note motives in the accompaniment at the beginning. He also gives exactly the right weight to the various syncopated notes, for example the horns from bar 7, so they register but do not intrude.
After so much calm the Merrymaking of the Country Folk has a welcome vitality and the storm is powerful at quite a broad tempo – which is what Beethoven asked for. Quite a number of conductors have noted that Beethoven’s metronome marking for the finale is only a notch faster than that for the Brook, and have made a memorably poetic moment out of the transition from the storm. Usually, however, they feel the need to move on a little later. Harnoncourt maintains his slow tempo, returning to the mood of Olympian sublimity with which he began, if anything winding down still further towards the end.
In some moods one might wish for a more bracing approach, but when you want the calmest, most serene Pastoral imaginable, here it is, a remarkable achievement, and who would have expected it from this source.

LIONEL DAVID HOLDER