On track: Vienna Philharmonic makes history

By WILLIAM DART

Sir Simon Rattle and the Vienna Philharmonic are quite a team - you can hear it in this new Beethoven set. Little wonder the conductor has described the orchestra as "a pair of shoes I should have worn all my life".

But is this the recording to prove there is life in the struggling classical market? If EMI's bankrolling of the project to the tune of some $3 million is anything to go by, then these five CDs are to be taken very, very seriously.

While some might be content with their complete Karajan or prefer to curate their own collection from various individual interpretations, Rattle and the VP offer one great bonus for the concertgoer - these are spectacularly engineered live recordings.

There are also the advantages of scholarship: Rattle uses the new Jonathan Del Mar editions which means the brook in the Pastoral Symphony flows with a new subtlety on muted strings.

Being live, there is the occasional slip-up (including some wayward horn notes in the trio of the Eroica scherzo) but this is a small price to pay when you can thrill to the Finale of the Choral Symphony from the dress circle of the Grosser Musikvereinsaal, enjoying the sort of choral fervour and accuracy so many New Zealand choirs could only dream of. For soloists, Barbara Bonney, Birgit Remmert, Kurt Streit and Thomas Hampson are a dream team.

While tempi are generally on the lively side (try the Finale of the Seventh for example), the English conductor can be the soul of restraint. The country folk gathering in the third movement of the Pastoral have as many graceful moments as merry ones; the first movement of the Fifth has Beethoven deliberating rather than beating his breast.

Rattle's also not afraid to walk on the wild side. He surges from pianissimo to fortissimo in a few beats.

It may be tempting to opt for a budget set at half the price (this set retails at $90 at Marbecks website), but these discs are history: nine indubitable masterpieces lovingly recorded in gripping reinterpretations for our age.

* Simon Rattle and the Vienna Philharmonic, Beethoven Symphonies (EMI Classics, 5 compact discs, 7243 4 57445)