André Previn, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8 (1990)

No conductor worth his or her salt can ever consider himself or herself having truly conducted until they have tackled the symphonies of Beethoven, either on record or in the concert hall (usually both). Many conductors have, of course, done the complete cycle of the composer's nine immortal symphonic essays for recording posterity, sometimes twice. Andre Previn is one of the few who hasn't done the latter, but this doesn't negate his considerable qualifications as a major-league conductor. It did seem that he was on track to do a complete Beethoven cycle for RCA/BMG in the 1980s with Sir Thomas Beecham's Royal Philharmonic, but he only did the last six (nos. 4-9), and not the first three (1-3). Still, doing them at all, especially when you specialize in 20th century English and Russian masterworks like Previn does, is an achievement.

For the purposes of this recording, Previn and the Royal Philharmonic take up what are likely two of Beethoven's most underplayed symphonic undertakings. The Fourth Symphony, composed simultaneously with the Fifth during 1806, was considered by Robert Schumann to be a "slender Greek maiden standing in between two Norse giants" (the other Norse giant being the Eroica); and indeed, it is something of a throwback to the Haydn/Mozart period, with the smallest number of orchestral forces required for any of the composer's symphonies (only one flute is included). The Eighth, composed seven years later in 1813, simultaneous with No. 7, is also a Haydn/Mozart throwback to some extent, but also seems to look ahead to the emerging symphonies of Franz Schubert, who had just polished off his own First Symphony in that same year, and who was to show how Beethoven's influence had begun to seep through.

It would have been interesting to see what a complete Beethoven cycle from Previn and the Royal Philharmonic would have been like, but that sadly didn't happen. Nevertheless, this conductor/orchestra combine does these under-performed symphonies of Beethoven's rather well without too much over-emphasis on accents or sounding like they're rushing off to a fire sale they forgot about, like so many period-instrument performances seem to do. Although still overshadowed to some extent by its counterparts in the London classical sphere, the R.P.O. is nevertheless often capable of world-class performances, and under Previn's concise but not unhurried direction, they make the most of these two smaller-scale Beethoven symphonic essays. This is well worth adding to one's classical collection.