Beethoven: Complete Symphonies album review – perfectly adequate but perfectly forgettable | Classical music

Uwhen the range of available alternatives is already astonishingly wide – modern or ancient tools; a large orchestra or chamber group; fast, light performances or more definitive, heavy ones – these days there has to be a good reason for a record company to release a new cycle of Beethoven symphonies, especially by an unknown orchestra with a conductor who, in the UK at least, is still relatively unknown. And while there’s nothing wrong with these Antonello Manacorda and Kammerakademie Potsdam performances, which seem like a mix of concert and studio recordings, it’s hard to discern what could recommend them over any of the myriad versions that exist.

Although described as a chamber orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam appears to be quite a large group. More than 50 string players are listed in the accompanying booklet, although obviously not all of them were used in every symphony. According to an interview with Manacorda, they sometimes use strings, sometimes metal, and in these performances the trumpets and horns are natural, but the woodwinds are modern.

The result is certainly effective: the sound is lean, bright and flexible, the articulation of the strings is wonderfully clear but with plenty of weight when needed, and the balance between wind and strings is perfectly even. What the performances seem to lack is real character. Manacorda usually favors fast tempos, but there is still a lack of sheer excitement in some pieces, such as the finale of the Seventh Symphony. Everything is perfectly effective and completely forgettable.

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