Of Beethoven, not booze. Haven’t had a drop in a year, and what better way to celebrate than with this monument to triumph? If you buy into the finale as revolutionary triumphalism (I partially do), then who better to perform it than musicians from the city that stormed the Bastille? Markevitch must have understood that, because he got the sometimes lazy Lamoureaux orchestra to catch fire like few versions I’ve heard. It also helps that some members of the Lamoureaux also played with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire of Paris, who had the longest unbroken tradition of Beethoven performance in history (they were formed in 1828 specifically to perform Beethoven) until the French government in its infinite wisdom broke them up sometime in the 60’s. You hear the traditional French orchestral sound in all its unblended glory–thank God they and others were recorded for posterity in the 60’s and earlier. Their characteristic sound has disappeared. French orchestras now sound like everyone else.
George Szell, who turned the Cleveland Orchestra into a world-class ensemble (they were Stravinsky’s favorite orchestra and one of the “big five” who dominated classical music in the US from the 50’s-80’s–the others were Boston, Phildelphia, Chicago, and New York) made three “official” (i.e. commercial releases recorded under controlled circumstances) recordings of the fifth, all great. But this live one with the Vienna Philharmonic (another group with a long tradition in this music) absolutely smokes.
If you Google top recordings of Beethoven’s fifth, you’ll find that everyone recommends Carlos Kleiber/Vienna Philharmonic as “the best. ” It’s excellent, but I find these to have more mojo. Anyway, the idea of there being a “best” in a work capable of infinite interpretations is just silly.
Other of my faves are any of the recordings by Otto Klemperer, whose son played Col. Klink on Hogan’s Heroes. If you don’t mind inferior 40’s to mid ‘50’s sound quality, there are also stunning 5ths by Erich Kleiber (father of Carlos), Bruno Walter, and Wilhelm Furtwängler.