Ludwig van Beethoven, Pierre Monteux, Vienna Philharmonic - Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral", Monteux / Vienna Philharmonic flac mp3 download

According to Richard Osborne of Gramophone, Pierre Monteux began Beethoven symphony recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1957. RCA management considered "Monteux didn't sell" and was slow to release this recording, which they eventually did - on RCA's mid-priced Victrola label. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) recordings have a certain amount of tape hiss and a slightly sour feel to the sound, perhaps by erratic VPO tuning or some out of phase recording at the time.Yet despite these criticisms, the following praise comes from Richard Osborne on the Monteux affect:"The Pastoral, in particular, is the kind of performance one more or less despairs of hearing nowadays. Textures, as always with Monteux, are beautifully clarified: woodwinds sing cleanly out, fiddles are divided left and right, the text is a good one, repeats all nicely in place. There is, in fact, a kind of 'period' purity about the performance; yet with nothing of the latter-day authenticists' untoward zeal in matters of rhythm. Monteux is no laggard. At the same time, he is a man you feel you could walk with; a man who knows his own natural pace, whether strolling by a river bank, walking a fell or roistering at a village fair." - Richard Osborne, Gramophone