Your "Never to be Sung Again" selections

[Alan Howe]

Actually, Chailly's Beethoven cycle turns out to be a good deal less controversial than I had imagined. What he has taken on board from HIP is the matter of tempi - which are pretty quick throughout, notably in slow movements (where I personally want more breathing space) - but the actual sound of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is much smoother than any specialist HIP band. So, while I don't like the over-pressed slow movements (in the same way that I don't like Stadlmair's renditions of Raff's slow movements in his Tudor cycle), this set isn't going to frighten any horses...

[chill319]

Regarding Beethoven's metronome markings, I've always thought it interesting that at the premiere of the Ninth at the Kärntnertortheaterof, Beethoven was still conducting AFTER the music had concluded. Clearly, his real-world tempos were slower (or less metronomic, or both) than those of Michael Umlauf, whom the orchestra was following.