Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Liszt, Sibelius

This week’s reviews include a generous Liszt anthology played by one of the 20th century’s most fondly remembered pianists. There’s a reissued box of Beethoven symphonies performed on modern instruments by one of the classiest European orchestras. Heading further north, we've a repackaged set of Sibelius symphonies with some essential extras.

Beethoven: The Symphonies Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus/Kletzki (Supraphon)

This lovely box set feels naughtily indulgent after the bracing, clean textures of Emanuel Krivine’s recent period-instrument Beethoven cycle. Paul Kletzki, born in Poland in 1900, was a popular guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic during the 1960s, and set down these performances between 1964 and 1968 in the warm acoustic of the Rudolfinum in Prague. The Czech Phil’s sound here is charismatic and idiomatic, with a rich, muscular string timbre cushioning highly distinctive wind and brass playing – trumpets and horns are piercing but incredibly warm-sounding, and there’s a lovely, subtle vibrato in flutes and oboes. You could listen to this orchestra play just about anything and you’d be seduced within seconds.

The interpretations hold up very well – Kletzki’s speeds are unhurried, but never seem unduly slow as he’s so good at sustaining the string lines and giving plenty of lift to the rhythms. The opening of the Fifth is a good example; it’s steady, muscular and full of grim inevitability, with immaculately pointed string quavers. The Eroica is another highlight – the first movement’s sledgehammer chords immaculately weighted and nicely coloured. In the Allegro ma non troppo of the Sixth, Kletzki’s pacing of those doodling ostinati five minutes in is immaculate, and we hear pre-echoes of Bruckner as well as 20th-century Minimalism. The lighter symphonies fare equally well – the Second and Fourth are both enjoyable, and the Eighth is one of the best you’ll find. The metronomic second movement skips along with no discernable effort, and the Allegro vivace amuses but never irritates. All excellent – I’ve never enjoyed the Ninth much, but the Czech choral sound is thrilling and Kletzki has good soloists. It’s nicely packaged, well-recorded and doesn’t cost much.

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The Liszt Album Arthur Rubinstein (piano) (RCA)

Born in 1887, the Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein gave his last concert in London in 1976 at the age of 89, dying in Switzerland six years later. His recording career stretched from 1910 to 1975, and this Liszt compilation is released along with a companion set played by Evgeni Kissin to mark the bicentenary of the composer’s birth. Most of the items were recorded in the 1950s. The sound quality is never an issue – this is playing of unimpeachable wit, warmth and elegance. Rubinstein’s spontaneity was legendary, and he’s on record as saying, "At every concert I leave a lot to the moment. I must have the unexpected, the unforeseen. I want to risk, to dare. I want to be surprised by what comes out.” He believed that too much practice was a bad thing, advising young pianists that three hours a day was quite enough. Listening to these recordings is like eavesdropping on a gracefully ageing veteran, delighted that his fingers are still capable of coming up with the goods.

The 1950 account of the Piano Concerto No 1 still stands up well – it’s not a profound piece, but Rubinstein adds enough sparkle to offset Lisztian bombast, and the upfront mono sound means that the triangle solo is incredibly present. The other big work is the Sonata in B minor – darker, emotionally exhausting, and played here with a freewheeling grace and humanity. The last few seconds are a highlight - here a miraculous, poetic unwinding. We also get a selection of shorter Liszt pieces, with two of the Hungarian Rhapsodies and the Mephisto Waltz No 1 providing virtuosic glitter and the gorgeous Consolation in D flat a much needed breather.

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The Sibelius Edition: Vol 12 – The Symphonies Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Vänskä, Jaako Kuusisto (BIS)

Rather like a classical equivalent of The Pet Sounds Sessions, here we have a consistently decent cycle of the seven completed Sibelius symphonies together with the recently disinterred 1915 version of the Fifth. And there’s a recently recorded bonus disc containing fragments discarded from the published versions. Some of these are complete alternative movements – the scherzos of the First and Fourth Symphonies are fascinating, the latter spookier and more elusive than the published account. There are two stabs at the opening of the Third, neither of which manages the transition to the second subject as successfully as does the version we know. There’s a reharmonised chunk of the Second’s slow movement and two attempts at finishing the one-movement Seventh. Both have their moments, but Sibelius’s last thoughts are satisfyingly bleaker, less consolatory. Jaako Kuusisto conducts the Lahti SO in these first thoughts, and this CD alone makes the set mandatory listening. Sibelius in serious mode found the compositional process a real struggle and it’s ironic that a piece of software making it possible for anyone to compose bad orchestral music in seconds bears his name.

What of the other performances, taken from a cycle taped in the late 1990s? Osmo Vänskä’s 1915 Fifth is revelatory - there’s no opening horn call, no transition linking the first two movements, and the singing woodwind descant floating over the last movement's swan theme is missing. It’s oddly disconcerting, and frequently stranger, more dissonant than the revised 1919 score. Vänskä’s accounts of the published symphonies are regarded by many as definitive. He’s at his best in Sibelius’s sparer, sparser moments – the Fourth and Sixth are sleek and otherworldly, and the leaner Lahti sound makes the First and Second sound more radical and forward-looking. Nice artwork and informative notes too.

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