My favourite Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (1)

Beethoven's First and Second are averse to heavy-handed treatment. Not so for Wand here, even if his reading was not HIP. The vitality and classical feel are all here. Simply lovely.

A happy happy day!

Less than a month ago I lamented that I lost a number of important Bruckner 5th CDs. Now they are all back. So now the Karajan and Celibidache ones are back to their homes (the full sets). The most important is the Asahina one, which cannot be replaced. It is out of print even in Japan.

Some extra finds as well: 7 Bruckner CDs by Altus (Bohm x1, Schuricht x3, Kna x2 and Richter x1). All the happier, shouldn't I? Even though I now have 2 copies of Harnoncourt's 5th and Bohm's 7th (Altus), how can I complain?

I also got back several sheets of notes I wrote during the comparisons of these versions of Bruckner 5ths.

Wonderful.

Barenboim's BPO Beethoven Seventh

The speical thing about this disc is the sense of occasion.

The piano concerto no. 1 was nicely played with his personal stamps coming in here and there. The Symphony No. 7 is one of the shortest readings as nearly all repeats were omitted. Barenboim proverbially donned the jacket of Furtwangler and it was quite evident here.

Very interesting, though not my first choice.