Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2.(Sound Recording Review)

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2. Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. PentaTone Classics 5186 118.

I was talking to a friend recently who reminded me that as time goes on things may evolve and grow different, but they don't necessarily get better. Conductors fit into this category, too. Not all of the great conductors of the sixties and seventies are today any better than they were; indeed, some of them have simply grown old and stodgy. But thank goodness we have recordings to preserve them in their prime, such being the case with Sir Neville Marriner and his wonderful 1970 recordings of the Beethoven First and Second Symphonies.

We take for granted today a small chamber orchestra playing early Beethoven, often on the same period instruments Beethoven had in mind. But do we recognize that Sir Neville was among the first persons actually to effect this with his Academy of St. Martin in the Fields? By paring down what had become traditionally big-scale, often inflated interpretations by full orchestras, Marriner was able to show us the grace and ...