Beethoven / The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy - Symphony No. 3: Eroica download free

Gripping performance. Thoroughly recommendable all round, given that you don't necessarily prefer a more 'modern', historically-informed period performance style. This is 'old' Beethoven with no apologies, played in outgoing, gutsy Philadelphia style. This is the 1st Edition of this 1961 recording, which was released in both stereo and in mono. The 1st Edition contains the 1st movement exposition repeat, unlike subsequent re-issues of this exact recording. As can be seen, the movement timing is 17:57, whereas on the CD release Sony S80129C 5-CD set of the 9 Symphonies (if you can find a copy), the same movement times at 14:50. Furthermore, this does not appear to be an 'electronic'/copy/paste repeat, evidenced by the existence of the rarely-played '1st-time bars' before the actual repeat itself: the orchestra must have run that section twice, by the sound of it. The Marcia funèbre has real pathos and the closing of the 4th movement conveys considerable grandeur during the slow section where triplet and duplet rhythms run alongside one another. At the time the recording was released, it was customary to have both mono and stereo mic/tape set-ups running. If anything, the mono version of this Lp displays more bite than the stereo.