Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 6

For anyone who wants first-rate stereo sound and a broadly traditional reading, it is hard to imagine more profoundly satisfying accounts than these. The playing of the LSO is nowadays quite... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2006, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 5th Jun 2006
Catalogue No: LSO0582
Label: LSO Live
Series: Haitink Complete Beethoven Symphonies

Gramophone Magazine

August 2006

Editor's Choice

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral'

London Symphony Orchestra
Bernard Haitink

Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36

London Symphony Orchestra
Bernard Haitink

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A high density DSD recording, live at the Barbican Centre on 16-27 November 2005

Reviews

July 2006

For anyone who wants first-rate stereo sound and a broadly traditional reading, it is hard to imagine more profoundly satisfying accounts than these. The playing of the LSO is nowadays quite magnificent, and they are fully justified in releasing their public performances.

a fantastic performance - pure music-making by a great conductor and an orchestra that responds magnificently to his every request

2010

Very appealing, this – the punchy, neatly packed sound; the way the timps thwack away at the right-hand side of the stage, the antiphonally placed fiddles busying to and fro, Haitink's unmannered, high-energy but essentially nonaggressive approach to both symphonies. The first thing that strikes you about the Pastoral is its sensitive shaping. The second is the lively pacing, but never breathless or unduly hurried. The 'Scene by the brook' ebbs and flows at roughly the prescribed speed and yet the LSO's playing, ever warm-hearted, never adopts 'period' affectations: it's as if the laudable old guard has had a wash, a brush-up and a slight change of heart regarding tempo and articulation. The 'Peasants' Merrymaking' enjoys something of Toscanini's bacchanalian drive, the storm a measure of his dynamism.
The Second Symphony is formal but fun. The opening Adagio molto is pretty powerful, the principal allegro light on its feet but rock-steady and with an imposing and firmly held bass-line.
Again, Haitink keeps the slow movement on the move without sacrificing gravitas.
Both readings are profoundly satisfying, the work of musicians who know the scores backwards, love playing them and know what not to do. To say that they provide a new benchmark would be crass; but Haitink and the LSO seem set to provide one of the top Beethoven symphony cycles of the digital era.

There is a oneness of conception here which is superb - quite remarkable and ultimately wholly convincing. I'll let you into a secret: I have many recordings of the Beethoven symphonies in my collection but if anyone where to ask me which version of the Pastoral Iwould recommend, I would first of all direct them to this one

...an interpretation from Haitink that looked beyond the Second's springy geniality and incorporated what brief elements of darkness he could find as a counterweight

Utter composure and authority drawn from a lifetime of musical exploration inform Bernard Haitink's latest Beethoven release with the LSO. The attention to detail is breathtaking. Vintage stuff

Dallas Morning News

Haitink elicits ravishing sounds from LondonSymphony...an undeniably great performance...Among the hundreds of recordings of this favorite work, you really can't do better

musicOHM

By the Brook has surely never been more beautifully played than it is here...There is a creaminess about the performance that is very difficult to capture on record

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 6

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