Can listeners be shocked anymore? After the aural assault of scrappy and scrawny period instruments performing Beethoven's mighty and magnificent "Eroica," can listeners still be shocked by a recording that not only uses period instruments and historically informed performance practices, but attempts to replicate the original performance itself by using the same size orchestra recorded in the hall in which the premiere occurred? That is what we have here with a 28-piece orchestra fittingly called
Ensemble 28 performing the "Eroica" in the Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna under the direction of conductor
Daniel Grossman.
If it is possible to be shocked anymore, then this recording is shocking. Performing on period instruments,
Ensemble 28's sound is extremely bright and brilliantly colorful. With 14 wind, brass, and tympani players against only 14 string players, the textures here are so transparent they practically glow. And with a multi-international cast of players, the enthusiasm is so energetic it virtually radiates.
Grossman's quick tempos and clipped rhythms give the music an amazing sense of momentum, and his control of phrasing and structure give it a palpable sense of inevitability. Compared with such once iconoclastic performances as
Hogwood and
Norrington's,
Grossman's performance is less measured and more impulsive. And compared with the
Academy of Ancient Music and the
London Classical Players,
Ensemble 28 is more virtuosic and more cocksure. Though certainly not for fans of
Walter or
Klemperer's views of the work, listeners who enjoyed the jolt of
Hogwood and
Norrington may enjoy the shock of
Grossman and
Ensemble 28. Neos' digital sound is clear and deep, with a wonderful sense of time and especially place.