Though not a particularly memorable recording on the whole, Carlo Maria Giulini’s 1970 Beethoven Pastoral Symphony has lovely moments. The New Philharmonia strings stand out in the second and fifth movements, where even the pizzicatos are luminous and singing. While the storm movement doesn’t exactly thunder to high heaven, the instrumental strands still emerge with uncommon clarity. The second movement’s brookside solos, especially the passages evoking bird calls, are delicate and characterful. Discerning listeners will notice solo horn fluffs left uncorrected in the finale. If you must have a Giulini Pastoral, this one’s better than the conductor’s relatively turgid Los Angeles Philharmonic DG remake. For genial, lyrical Pastorals of this ilk, however, Böhm/Vienna’s superior sonics and orchestral execution remain first choice.
In the Eighth symphony, Giulini’s moderate tempos for the outer movements and the blended sonorities that characterize the inner movements abet the performance’s bland impression, compared to Paul Kletzki’s brash and bracing Czech Philharmonic or the Cleveland Orchestra’s tensile, stinging impact under George Szell’s leadership.
At least the London Symphony Orchestra bests its Philharmonia colleagues for discipline and precision, and are heard to even greater advantage in the Ninth Symphony. The expansive phrasing and ripe orchestral sonorites Giulini favors always are anchored by strong rhythmic underpinning and careful attention to accents and note values (the first movement’s relentless sextuplets, the Scherzo’s persistent motto dotted rhythm). Neither the solo quartet nor the chorus matches their era’s reference counterparts (Schmidt-Isserstedt’s soloists, Kletzki’s choral singing), while other Ninths of this vintage surpass this one for dynamism and heft (Solti/Decca, Ozawa/Philips, Böhm/Vienna). Interestingly, Giulini’s DG Berlin Philharmonic remake offers greater thrust and cumulative force, notwithstanding slower tempos all around. In sum: an uneventful Pastoral, a dull Eighth, and a very good Ninth.
