Chailly's new Beethoven cycle and the Gramophone video interviews
Wed, Oct 12 2011, 8:26PM
Has anybody noticed that the recordings of Beethoven symphonies used as the background to the three Chailly video interviews don't seem to match the interpretations as described by the conductor, especially his attempts to use Beethoven's tempo markings?
Furthermore, the excerpt from the Eroica available through the Player's Awards 2011 issue reveals that the real Chailly recordings thankfully use the current Leipzig 19th-century string seating arrangement: divided violins, cellos left, violas right. The interview background recordings seem to have the inferior "modern" seating (invented by Henry Wood around 1910) with all the violins on the left.
If the background Beethoven is not all from Chailly's cycle, the Gramophone is doing a disservice to that cycle to use them in those interviews for on the basis of the true Eroica excerpt it is one of the most interesting modern-instrument cycles to appear in years.
I agree - as best I can tell, these are 'generic' recordings and not related to the new Chailly release.
As for these being new videos - they have been on Youtube for weeks.
He reminds me of a man driving the car with the handbrake on, but stubbornly refusing to stop, even though there is a strong smell of burning rubber.
-- Colin Wilson, Brandy of the Damned (1964) regarding Beethoven