Recordings like this are useful since they justify the use of a 1-10 rating system. What would we do without them? All of the releases in this series have been pretty disgusting, but this one takes the prize. It’s the most boring, unidiomatic performance of this symphony ever recorded. The performance lasts more than 70 minutes; compare this to Kondrashin (57 minutes) or Mravinsky (60 minutes), and you can see the problem. The first movement alone lasts more than half an hour, and the finale more than 16 minutes (12-13 being more normal). Of course, absolute speed isn’t the only thing that matters, but slow speeds combined with flaccid rhythms and soggy phrasing make for singularly toxic results.
You know you’re in trouble right from the beginning: the cellos and basses lack heft. The music literally oozes from one note to the next, with an oily legato smoothness so at odds with the clear sense of what it wants to express that the result is shocking. The Beethoven Orchester of Bonn is not one of Germany’s best in any event. Its unimpressive brass, flavorless woodwinds (what a poker-faced scherzo!), and weak timpani make a mockery of this symphony’s tragic intensity. The climax of the first movement has all the power of a mild case of indigestion following a too-heavy meal. That of the third-movement toccata is rescued by an impressive tam-tam, but prior to that point the orchestra might have been playing Mendelssohn. In short, this is a joke, and not a funny one. The sonics faithfully reflect the dullness of the playing and inadequacy of Roman Kofman as a Shostakovich interpreter. Yawn.
