Ansermet And Beethoven-A Different Point Of View

Ansermet and Beethoven
I just received Ansermet`s Beethoven Symphonies on a 5CD Italian Decca set. I got it from HMV Japan. Italy via Japan. Wouldn`t it be nice if it was released here in the States?
First of all the sound
It is quite clear that these CDs are off the master tapes. I have been listening to them for years off the original open reels but these are vastly superior. When one considers that they were recorded between 1958-1963 the following becomes clear
1) The Victoria Hall is a great place to record
2) Ampex made a pretty good tape deck
3) Telefunken made pretty good mikes
4) The mixers and amps made in house by Decca were the best in the world
The earliest recording, the Fifth, was made with the famous Decca tree (three mikes only) and it is the most realistic. They gradually added a couple of highlighting mikes but it still sounds like an orchestra in a hall-compare that to Lenny`s NY Phil Records-multimiked disasters
And now to the performances
This is Beethoven stripped of all sentimentality and excesses. The late Robert Charles Marsh called it Beethoven Brut. The playing has great vigor and great rhythm (can you expect anything else from Ansermet)? The phrasing has great architecture. The rubato is natural as Ansermet never stops to linger. Yet there is a natural feeling that makes Beethoven`s statements even stronger. As always with Ansermet, the nuances (sforzandos, accents etc) are made to be part of the architectural phrase and do not exist for their own sake.
The slow movements are lyrically beautiful without any melting (Bruno Walter whose Eroica {1949} funeral march loses its forward pulse to make a point). It proves that Beethoven was a greater melodist than he is usually credited as being. He just was in his own world and had his own idea of melody. Could anyone else have written the beautifully profound contrapuntal architecture of the slow movement of the seventh? Ansermet and his men excel here.
The sound Ansermet gets from the Suisse Romande is rough but polished. The orchestra members have come to earn their money. The strings phrase like wind players (Ansermet was a wind player). The winds play with gusto and aplomb. The entirety is helped by a mike placement that is a perfect combination of hall ambience and presence.
Beethoven`s amazing flute parts are played by Andre Pepin with a beautiful pure tone and innate musicality. The oboe parts sing as only Roger Reversy can. Edmond Leloir, the Principal Horn gives a clinic on how it should be done (I am a French Hornist). I defy anyone to find a recording of the trio of the Eroica where all three horns are heard equally. Paolo Longhinotti, Principal Trumpet has not much to do but he does it very well. Listen to him lead the band in the slow movement of the Fifth and you will see why he is still remembered today even though he died in 1963. Henri Haelerts plays his French Style bassoon without vibrato so you can actually hear it.
This set is filled with some overtures. The Leonore 2 & 3 are not included. Also the 1956 Symphonies #1 & 8 are absent. I always preferred the 1956 first, how can you not like that finale. The sound of the 1963 First is so much better than what came before, it requires a reassessing. The grosse fugue is absent too.
For those who want to hear Beethoven`s Symphonies at their most musical this set is for you. I paid about $45 with shipping from HMV Japan. You probably can get it cheaper in Italy (Stradivarius). Some nut on ebay paid $72
To those who believe the "Penguins" of the UK that Ansermet can only conduct French Music, you will be missing one of the most musical sets ever made. And to those who think the SRO was a second rate orchestra (or mediocre but competent, John Culshaw, what the hell does that mean????) just listen to these recordings.
This is a set I will cherish for a long time. It makes me forget Toscanini`s 1939 cycle. RC Marsh compared Ansermet`s fourth with AT`s BBC 78s and Ansermet`s Eroica to ATs 1953 broadcast. So there is a likeness in musicality but a difference in temperament. If Toscanini had the sound Ansermet got or if there were recordings from ATs real prime things would be different. Ansermet would alter the orchestral balances in the hall so the recordings would match his wants. That was sacrilegious to AT. Also RCA really did AT badly. Just compare recordings of Ansermet and AT made during the same year. Decca was tops. RCA was embarrassingly a bottom feeder.

winds in 6? (I`ve never heard it.)

much, and also really like the Philharmonia winds from the 50s and 60s.
However, certainly one of my all time favorite clarinet performances on record is by a Frenchman (I think he was French anyway): the Hindemith Clarinet Concerto with Louis Cahuzac and the Philharmonia conducted by the composer.

The Sibelius 2 is good, but I wouldn`t recommend seeking it out if you already have versions by Szell, Barbirolli, Monteux, etc. OTOH, Ansermet recorded an *excellent* Sibelius 4 as well. I`m not sure if it has ever appeared on CD.
As our "maniac" friend says, a significant part of the appeal of Ansermet`s Decca recordings is the outstanding engineering. Of course, Ansermet also made it possible to produce such splendid sounding documents. As he said in that wonderful interview reprinted in Conversations with Conductors, he always strove to make the "underwears" clean, and it shows.

ordinary. When all`s said and done, Culshaw was right about Ansermet -- he should have stayed with the French and Russian repertoire. Most of his ventures outside that territory were not a success.

of course, OP. Not all EA appeared on Decca, however (cf The Royal Ballet, last on Classic Compact LDSCD6065) I presume by `important` we are excluding EA with the LPO + the obligatory Swiss works Rosengarten would on occasion pay for.
Roy Wallace remembers EA sessions as if they were yesterday - the CR was in the hall manager`s office; the mike cables were drawn from the hall, outside, up the stairs and into the room. EA, though a chain smoker, would bound up the stairs to listen to playbacks; he even demonstrated dance steps when he recorded Swan Lake. A fantastic and under-rated musician.
It`s unlikely Decca, or anyone else, will rectify the EA situation: UMG Japan is out of the reissue business - sales as low as 850 copies for some titles could not justify the effort, even for the small core classical market.