Great Artist, Bad Day: Colin Davis’ Dresden Beethoven Cycle

Beethoven: Complete Symphonies. Staatskapelle Dresden, Colin Davis (cond.) Newton Classics (Philips/Decca)

Hello friends this is Dave herwitz executive editor at Classics today.com here with great artist bad day because everyone has them sometimes they have bad weeks sometimes they have bad years or bad epochs in their lives now this is I was going through my CDs as I always

Do you know just rum rumaging about to see what’s in there and and this thing showed up this is Newton Classics which you know was the strange little budget thing that licensed really major stuff from major labels they had a lot of universal stuff polygram stuff you know

Whatever they want not polyram Universal you know Deca Phillips Deutsche gramophone things some of it marvelous UI Vivaldi things like that but they also had this Colin Davis’s schats capella Dresden Beethoven cycle now I’ve been talking about less than wonderful Beethoven cycles and as part of this series I did Ricardo mti’s Beethoven

Cycle Philadelphia which some of you were quick to point out well it’s not really bad and it isn’t I know this is called great artists bad day and some of the things in this series are truly atrocious don’t get me wrong but part of the thing here is that when you’re

Dealing with a really fine artist who you really admire and I think Colin Davis is just a marvelous conductor you know less than best is always depressing it really is and less than best in Beethoven Symphonies is super duper uber depressing it’s especially when they’ve done earlier recordings of some of them

And you know that they can do them really well but it all depends on where you are and Colin Davis was um I know I hate to go into biography but he was he was a conductor who really blew hot and cold he had you know emotional issues

Throughout his life there were times when he sort of went into a musical Funk um as for example most of his life with the Bavarian radio that was recorded for RCA a lot lot of those recordings weren’t very good he did that Dreadful series of sellus recordings with the

London Symphony for RCA a lot of his life on RCA well this was on RCA at least I’m pretty sure it was if I recall rightly although it may have been an East German recording because it was done in those days and what was East Germany what does it say it was licensed

From no it was Universal International music okay so must have been on Phillips yes it was on Phillips I’m getting my brain back here um and he did glorious things first of all you have theat Cella Dresden one of my all-time favorite orchestras especially in in Beethoven they did that fabulous cycle with

Herbert blomet they they did glorious Mozart with Colin Davis my goodness he had a wonderful relationship with that Orchestra so I had very very high expectations for this particular set I really did and it is beautiful it’s beautifully recorded the recordings that he made with the schat capella dressed in were really

Really gorgeous sonically because they were using the East German Engineers that I’m sure of 100% sure of and uh you know I mean because you have like you know ursul a singer the recording Engineers or you know people I’ve never heard of so that’s always a good sign anyway the bottom line

Is it’s a dull Boven cycle I mean it’s not terribly dull it’s not it’s it’s handsomely played but every everything is just a hair under Tempo it’s just not exciting and that’s what Colin Davis was like when he was off because he was a very inspirational conductor he really

Was I mean I saw him live many times and and he could be absolutely thrilling or he could be absolutely dull as ditchwater depending on what it was he often sort of lost control of the performance when I used to see them at least one moment where like everything

Went haywire but it was amiable you got you know his his commitment was always so evident when he was on and I don’t think he was terribly not on for these performances but they’re just underwhelming I mean that is the word underwhelming your whelm is under and

The problem with this cycle is really very similar without getting into like crazy specifics it it was very similar to the problem with Ricardo mti’s because Muti homogenized the symphony it wasn’t that he homogenized like the actual textures and all that but he played them all excuse me I got an itch

He played them all rather the same and so the result over listening you know to the whole series was that it was this very beautiful playing sort of glommed onto each Symphony wanly um without a lot of differentiation between them and that’s what happens here now Davis did

Fantastic recordings of of the sth he did a great version of the 9th in Bavaria um uh was it in Bavaria I think it was yeah Bavarian radio and before he was actually regularly there on RCA it was on Phillips he did some terrific Beethoven he can do terrific Beethoven

And there’s no question about it but this is just a non-happening set they’re just beautifully played but somehow monotonous over their length and that makes come partly from also listening to big chunks of them all at once you know you you you recognize the approach you recognize the orchestra you recognize

The sensibility but my goodness you want him to let go because Davis was a guy who knew how to let go I mean heck he did barely OES mostly fabulously he got it he really got it romantic music too so um I don’t know I’m keeping it I keep it for the

Schat capella Dresden more than anything else um and you know was it a terrible bait of it cycle no it’s not it’s just not thrilling and by the way I remember when it came out and I remember reading all the original reviews and they were

Sort of along those lines and I said to myself no they have to be wrong because they’re critics and they weren’t me you know so everybody who wasn’t me is going to be wrong and you have to make your own you know draw your own conclusions on the basis of actual listening careful

Listening and I bought the set which was expensive and and I played it and it was beautiful and I thought oh it’s so beautiful and I remember the beginning of the eroa you know it just sounded so promising and then it just never woke up and that’s the story of this set the

Heroa the seventh the fifth all the the big ones there are gorgeous features you know the most mardian of Beethoven CES the fourth comes off rather well but no it’s not a great Beethoven cycle and it’s a Pity because it comes from a great conductor so keep on listening

Friends thanks for joining me take care