Carl Schuricht’s mono Beethoven cycle for EMI in the late 1950s was preceded by a near-complete traversal with various orchestras during the 78 era. Despite the unquestionable interpretive virtues and stylistic command of the Schuricht/Berlin 1943 “Pastorale” and 1937 Seventh, they lack the potency and orchestral polish distinguishing performances from that era by conductors as disparate as Toscanini, Stokowski, and Furtwängler. Grammofono’s filtered remastering, moreover, proves inferior to the brighter transfers offered by Lys in their Schuricht series.
