27th September 2024, Frank Pommer, Die Rheinpfalz
“Recordings of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies fill entire CD shelves. But this one with Michael Francis at the podium of the German State Philharmonic Orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate is different. The Ludwigshafen orchestra has recorded the versions of Beethoven’s works that Gustav Mahler arranged – with some astonishing results…
Of course you can hear Mahler’s retouching, but of course Beethoven’s symphonies are not painted over or even distorted by it. On the contrary, even in the Mahler arrangements you can hear the signature of the British chief conductor of the State Philharmonic, and Michael Francis has a lot to say about Beethoven.
It begins with an energetic, rousing Fifth, especially in the first movement. The shudder at fate is almost palpable, the existential uncertainty. Francis designs and structures it by relying on dynamic gradations as well as changing tempos. And then comes the downright overwhelming core message of the fifth symphony, when the key changes from C minor to C major and everything culminates in a great final apotheosis. It is downright overwhelming.
This is repeated in the seventh symphony, where Francis builds up the tension more and more in the slow introduction of the first movement, before the jubilation makes itself heard in the first theme. And the Ninth repeats the path of the Fifth again. The first movement sounds almost threatening, everything is already laid out in the first bars. But we know: This arduous path will lead to the summit: “All men become brothers”.
