Notes and Editorial Reviews
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Ivan Fischer's Beethoven Seventh surely ranks with the best among recent performances. The first-movement introduction isn't too slow, and the allegro is a delightful romp full of arresting wind detail. The Allegretto stands among the most beautifully paced and balanced since Szell's. In the Scherzo, Fischer manages a swift basic pace that achieves the minor miracle of never sounding mechanical, while the finale has athleticism and unusual textural transparency at a very lively tempo. All that's missing from this performance, and it may be a function of the otherwise excellent engineering, is a little extra presence from the horns in
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the outer movements and from the timpani at the climaxes. Still, it doesn't get much better.
That said, the couplings are a puzzle. I like the idea of pairing Beethoven with his contemporaries, and the Rossini overture sounds brilliant, but why only single movements from the Weber and Wilms pieces? Either give us complete works, or find another concept that can be accommodated on a single disc. Certainly the Weber could have been included complete, thereby creating an appealing concert experience: overture, concerto, symphony. Fine as the performances are, it's difficult to see who will want this disc beyond Beethoven symphony specialists, and more's the pity.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
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Works on This Recording
1.
L'italiana in Algeri: Overture by Gioachino Rossini
Conductor:
Iván Fischer
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1813; Italy
Length: 8 Minutes 12 Secs.
2.
Symphony no 4 in C minor, Op. 23: Finale by Johann Wilhelm Wilms
Conductor:
Iván Fischer
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: Netherlands (Holland
Length: 5 Minutes 13 Secs.
3.
Symphony no 7 in A major, Op. 92: 2nd movement, Allegretto by Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor:
Iván Fischer
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Period: Classical
Written: 1811-1812; Vienna, Austria
Length: 9 Minutes 7 Secs.
4.
Symphony no 7 in A major, Op. 92: 3rd movement, Presto by Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor:
Iván Fischer
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Period: Classical
Written: 1811-1812; Vienna, Austria
Length: 9 Minutes 41 Secs.
5.
Symphony no 7 in A major, Op. 92: 4th movement, Allegro con brio by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer:
Akos Acs (Clarinet)
Conductor:
Iván Fischer
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Period: Classical
Written: 1811-1812; Vienna, Austria
Length: 8 Minutes 25 Secs.
6.
Symphony no 7 in A major, Op. 92: 1st movement, Poco sostenuto-Vivace by Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor:
Iván Fischer
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Period: Classical
Written: 1811-1812; Vienna, Austria
Length: 13 Minutes 50 Secs.
7.
Concerto for Clarinet no 1 in F minor, J 114/Op. 73: 2nd movement, Adagio ma non troppo by Carl Maria von Weber
Performer:
Akos Acs (Clarinet)
Conductor:
Iván Fischer
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1811; Munich, Germany
Length: 6 Minutes 18 Secs.
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