Hallé/Elder – review

Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterThe Sixth is possibly the simplest of Beethoven's symphonies to listen to, yet the most challenging to present. By interpolating a storm into an unusual five-movement structure, Beethoven effectively created the first classical symphony with a rain break; though his compositional notebook included the revealing note to self: "All tone painting in music loses its value if pushed too far."The drawback of the strict-tempo approach favoured by Riccardo Chailly's rece...

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