Fanfare errs in Tennstedt Beethoven review

[RebLem]

Today (June 6) I sent the following email to Fanfare Mag, for potential publication in their letters column:

In Fanfare Volume 30:5 for May/June 2007, p. 56-57, Evan Dickerson reviewed Klaus Tennstedt's 2 CD EMI London Philharmonic set of the Beethoven Symphonies 3, 6, and 8, and 4 overtures--Creatures of Prometheus, Coriolan, Egmont, and Fidelio. He erred when he wrote, "Tennstedt's Beethoven legacy, unlike his Mahler one, falls sadly short of the full symphony cycle, lacking a Fourth and Ninth from either the concert hall or the studio."

Mr. Dickerson may be right about the Fourth. But I own two CDs of two different Tennstedt concert hall performances of the Ninth. Although both were recorded in the digital era, both are in analog stereo. The earliest is on the Memories Excellence label (ME1045) with the Minnesota Orchestra and the University of Minnesota Symphonic Chorus. Soloists are Esther Hinds, soprano, Janis Hardy, mezzo-soprano, Dennis Bailey, tenor, and Samuel Ramey, bass, and is of a live performance from February 5, 1982, TT: 69:28. The latter is from the BBC Legends label (BBCL 4131-2). It is with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir from a live performance at Royal Albert Hall on September 13, 1985. Soloists are Mari Anne Haggander, soprano, Alfred Hodgson, contralto, Robert Tear, tenor, and Gwynne Howell, bass. TT: 68:24.

Both of them are in excellent sound, though there does seem to be an excessive amount of tape hiss on the Memories Excellence issue, and are among the better, more impressive performances of this work I own.