OH my goodness.

Here is another sensational set of performances from Sir John Eliot Gardiner, this time with his own orchestra, the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, and on his own label, SDG. Through these magically balanced performances of Beethoven's Second and Eighth Symphonies, recorded live at Cadogan Hall, Gardiner addresses the old canard about Beethoven's even-numbered symphonies being lighter members of the species. My generation was aware of this perception. It was nonsensical in practice: listen to Otto Klemperer's heavyweight vision of the symphonies to hear the theory trounced. And there's nothing "lightweight" about Gardiner's versions either, in these bitingly alive, blindingly lucid and incisive accounts, though it is the transparent textures of the amazing ORR playing that is most memorable. I have never heard the inner workings of the symphonies so clearly: it feels like you're right inside Beethoven's thought processes. And both the playing and pacing of the music are fleet and light of touch. This is magical stuff.

Michael Tumelty