There are conductors for whom a recording is primarily a document, and there are conductors for whom a recording reveals something of their personality even decades later. Seiji Ozawa, who died in 2024, belongs in principle to that second category: technically precise, broad in repertoire, with a conducting style in which external elegance and inner intensity lay close together. That he conducted the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (BRSO) only twice throughout his entire career makes this release of the concerts of January 17 and 18, 1990 – now on cd for the first time – immediately interesting. The cd booklet even speaks of an unforgettable concert. I'm happy to believe that, for Ozawa's concerts did indeed have something special about them. Only: on this cd, that doesn't come across sufficiently.
The program is set up like a small historical triptych: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Richard Strauss (1864-1949), and between them the conductor who connects both worlds. Beethoven's Fifth is the work in which later generations were supposed to hear a heroic struggle against fate; Strauss sought with Ein Heldenleben to consciously connect with that same Beethovenian tradition. Nicely conceived as a concert program. Only the performance doesn't live up to that promise.
Beautiful, but too tame
The familiar story of fate knocking at the door has been attributed to Beethoven by Anton Schindler and is historically dubious – E. T. A. Hoffmann didn't mention fate at all in his famous 1810 review, but rather spoke of music that carries the listener from darkness to the immeasurable. One would thus expect that a conductor who knows how to avoid that cliché would put something more exciting in its place. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen with Ozawa.
The opening notes sound somewhat sluggish, more of a start than a punch. After that, the whole thing does become more dynamic, but everything remains so measured that the drama never really breaks through. The orchestra plays beautifully – the architecture is clear, the string sound in the Andante is warm – but you're never on the edge of your seat. Even the transition between the third and fourth movements, the very hinge moment of the entire symphony, the place where the music should tilt from darkness to light, I dare even call boring.
That's a shame, because the orchestral playing in itself is fine. But a Fifth without that inescapable tension is not, for me, a performance that deserves to be released. I suspect that in the BR archives there are more thrilling evenings with this orchestra to be found – this one, in my opinion, shouldn't have been among them.
Better, but without fireworks
Ein Heldenleben sounds considerably more convincing, though that's also logical: Strauss has a gigantic orchestral apparatus with which he can paint, enlarge, and parody himself, and that orchestral richness clearly sits well with the BRSO. The sound is skilful, the violin solos of concertmaster Ernő Sebestyén in Des Helden Gefährtin are truly beautiful: elegant, with just enough idiosyncrasy to give the portrait of "the hero's companion" a real personality.
Yet here too the fire is missing. Everything sounds beautiful, but rarely really moves you. Ozawa skillfully maintains the balance between detail and mass, but where Karajan or Kempe sweep you along, this performance remains too controlled, too well-mannered. And anyone who specifically wants this orchestra with Ein Heldenleben in their collection might as well just buy the performance of the same orchestra with Mariss Jansons.
A disappointment
This is a recording from which I expected a lot, perhaps too much: Ozawa, this orchestra, this program. The orchestral playing is fine, the sound restoration by BR-KLASSIK is careful, and as a historical document this cd has value for anyone wanting to document Ozawa's career or the history of the BRSO. But anyone looking for a Fifth or a Heldenleben that sweeps you along won't find it here.
Not everything that was once an unforgettable concert is supposed to become an unforgettable cd.
