Although it's not identified as such anywhere on the packaging, this disc by the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, made at its home in northeastern Italy, is a live recording. The sound is reasonable even if it tends to slight the strings. The potential buyer may wonder whether this regional orchestra has something to add to the thick dialogue concerning these famous Beethoven symphonies. Indeed it does; these technically solid recordings do not sound precisely like any of the better-known ones. Whether they will be to ...
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Although it's not identified as such anywhere on the packaging, this disc by the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, made at its home in northeastern Italy, is a live recording. The sound is reasonable even if it tends to slight the strings. The potential buyer may wonder whether this regional orchestra has something to add to the thick dialogue concerning these famous Beethoven symphonies. Indeed it does; these technically solid recordings do not sound precisely like any of the better-known ones. Whether they will be to the individual listener's taste is another matter. The Bolzano region, having changed hands among empires various times, remains culturally as much Austrian as Italian, and indeed the interpretations by conductor Gustav Kuhn are of the conservative Viennese sort, with an emphasis on Beethoven's Classical antecedents, an elevation of line over local detail, and a generally even keel throughout. His approach is quite detailed, and it works best in the small scale: in the Symphony No....
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