While by no means the finest recordings of Beethoven's incidental music for Goethe's Egmont and for Kotzebue's Die Ruinen von Athen, this disc with Dennis Russell Davies directing the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke's does serve a purpose. Because while George Szell's recording with the Vienna Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado's recording with the Berlin Philharmonic outshine Davies with the LSO when it comes to the Egmont music, and while Paul Klee's recording with the Berlin Philharmonic outclasses ...
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While by no means the finest recordings of Beethoven's incidental music for Goethe's Egmont and for Kotzebue's Die Ruinen von Athen, this disc with Dennis Russell Davies directing the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke's does serve a purpose. Because while George Szell's recording with the Vienna Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado's recording with the Berlin Philharmonic outshine Davies with the LSO when it comes to the Egmont music, and while Paul Klee's recording with the Berlin Philharmonic outclasses Davies with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the simple fact of the matter is that none of those recordings is currently available outside of multi-disc sets, and none of them compare to these two works. And besides, while Davies does tend to clip rhythms and drive tempos, he does believe in the music and he does a superb job of putting his belief into action with performances of strength, subtlety, and sympathy. If you have no recordings of either work, this is a fine place to start....
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