Title: Speed kills.
Product review: "SPEED KILLS" is a common slogan in road-safety campaigns around the world. It is also an apt metaphor for the way Scherchen has conducted these two Beethoven symphonies. It's as if they had been recorded immediately after a telephone call from Mrs. Scherchen admonishing her husband not to be late yet again for dinner.The majesty, the idealism and the passion of the "Eroica" are not totally absent, but they have been pushed into the background by relentless speed and directionless energy. The same can be said for the charm, the color and the lyricism of the "Pastorale".These idiosyncratic performances are lively enough, but they suffer from a lack of soul--that most outstanding of Beethoven's qualities.
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