Karl Böhm’s tempos for Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies are generally slow, yet his crisply sprung rhythms, tart linear balances, and masterful accentuations decisively propel these works onward and upward. The obsessive figurations in the Seventh’s outer movements, for instance, build with holy-rolling joy, and the slow movement moves at a real allegretto. After a perky Scherzo, the lethargic Trio is a real letdown, and never seems to end. Listeners who respond to Klemperer’s grim reaping of the Eighth’s quirky fields may find Böhm’s similar, yet more transparent and firmly etched reading more to their taste. There’s nothing remotely dated about Deutsche Grammophon’s nearly 30-year-old sonics. A most attractive bargain.
