Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 15, 2013

Carlos Kleiber: Traces to Nowhere was an often fascinating but still sometimes frustrating documentary about one of the most protean conducting talents of his generation who never really seemed to become a matinee idol type to rapt audiences, but who still had the distinction of being named the greatest conductor of all time by a BBC Music Magazine’s panel of well known conductors and musicians. Kleiber is still a relative unknown even in the insular world of classical music, and in a way he created a lot of that quality himself, shielding himself from the public relations hype that so many others in his line of work jump at the chance to partake in. Kleiber’s reputation rests on a relatively few recordings (at least when compared to the huge discographies of conductors like Bernstein or Solti), and two of his lauded Beethoven Symphony efforts for Deutsche Grammophon have now been released in the recent glut of Universal Music Group’s High Fidelity Pure Audio line of audio Blu-rays.

These recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic from the mid-seventies find Kleiber in fine form, crafting well articulated accountings of two of Beethoven’s most iconic works. Kleiber delivers a forceful, resonant version of the Fifth, and a surprisingly nuanced, lyrical version of the Seventh, with fine attention to detail—especially in terms of tempi and dynamics—in both pieces. Kleiber’s approach here is almost incalculably mercurial at times (his tempi for the first movement of the Fifth and especially the final movement of the Seventh are incredibly fast), but he obviously whipped the always formidable Vienna Philharmonic into a rare state of concentration and focus for these recordings, which remain two of the most iconic Beethoven Symphony efforts of their era, and perhaps well beyond.

Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aside from the static menu, there's no real video content here.

Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The insert in this audio Blu-ray's keepcase includes the following text:

What is High Fidelity Pure Audio?

High Fidelity Pure Audio combines the vast storage space and bandwidth of a Blu-ray disc with the original high quality recorded material to create a uniquely luxurious listening experience. We take audio in its purest and uncompressed form and master it onto a Blu-ray disc, retaining all of its original sound range and character to deliver you audio as it was meant to be heard. Because none of the disc is used up by video content and we are able to offer audio at its purest form.

As I've mentioned now on some of the pop and jazz UMG High Fidelity Pure Audio releases, it seems positively ironic for UMG to mention the "vast storage space" of (even a 25G) Blu-ray disc and then use a mere fraction of it. At least this release has two symphonies and therefore has a bit more "data" on it than some of the relatively paltry jazz and pop releases. The sound quality here is spectacular, though once again UMG offers three redundant audio options, an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 track (96-24 streaming at a steady 4.6 Mbps), a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track (96-24 and streaming around the low to mid-3's) and a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 track (96-24 and streaming in the mid-2's). These mid- seventies Deutsche Grammophon recordings are often faulted for a supposedly overly dry and sometimes brittle sound, but I found little of that in these recordings. While there isn't much hall ambience in any of the audio options here, there's amazing clarity and sonic brilliance, with a fine, burnished sound to the strings and a warm vigor to brass and winds. Kleiber really pushes the dynamics here, and those changes ring beautifully throughout all three audio options.

Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on this Blu-ray disc. Unlike some of UMG's other High Fidelity Pure Audio releases, this release at least has an insert booklet with notes. There is also a code included for a digital download of the album.

Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kleiber's Fifth is routinely mentioned as among the finest Beethoven recordings of all time, let alone of this particular piece. It's a thrilling experience, especially for those who perhaps have grown "tired" of this old chestnut. His Seventh is no less remarkable, with a beautifully nuanced second movement (probably my personal favorite movement in all of Beethoven's symphonic output), though his fourth movement is so fast that a little clarity is sacrificed, even in the inestimable playing of the Vienna Philharmonic. This release is still Highly recommended.