Spinning Today (Classical version)

[MartinT]

Beethoven Symphony No. 5 & 7, Nanut, Ljubljana SO, Stradivari

I listened to the 5th tonight after a recommendation from Jerry and it made for some interesting listening. This performance is so very different from my all-time favourite (Carlos Kleiber, VPO, DG) that I had to rewind and set some reference points. The performance is best described as stark, without melodrama and is performed in a dry acoustic. There is little sense of the orchestra having a conversation and none of the glow of the Kleiber. When I first played it I thought it was performed in a very dry studio, but actually there is a bigger space there and the effect is more due to the playing style of short, staccato sections and more obvious pauses in the flow.

I suppressed my grimace at points and continued with it, trying to understand what Nanut was doing. Did he just want a wilfully different performance than the thousands of others on the market, or was he trying for an effect akin to a smaller orchestra or ancient instruments or even just playing Beethoven in a style of, say, Haydn?

I remain puzzled. I played the Kleiber immediately afterwards and an enormous sense of rightness descended on me, together with a big grin. Now this is rhythmic, powerful, infectious.

Sorry, I don't think the Nanut is for me.