Beethoven - Symphony 7 [Ashkenazy-Philharmonia Orchestra]
For me this is the 'B' side to Beethoven's Symphony 5, which i played and reviewed last month [4th September 2011], it's one of the Beethoven nine that i've somewhat let slip out of my conciousness, it gets played nowhere near Symphonies 3, 5-6 & 9, and yet it's a tremendous work, one of Beethoven's best, and i'm glad to rekindle my acquaintance here.
Vladimir Ashkenazy is a Russian Conductor and Pianist, now 74, he has a huge discography, of Conducting orchestral works, playing solo piano, playing Piano Concertos, or chamber music, he's very varied, he recorded this disc roughly a couple of decades ago, the front cover is from a Japanese issue, which i find a lot better than the original covers that these Symphonies came from.
The whole Symphony is just so Beethoven isn't it?, a bit obvious, other Symphonies of his someone else might be able to steal and pretend is theirs, but the Seventh has the stamp of Beethoven all over it, and it's the first movement i found so utterly compelling,
Here's Carlos Kleiber conducting the first movement on YouTube, check out 4:22-4:23 Kleiber is just so incredible.
