Speakers Corner / Columbia MS 6036 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl -

AAA 100% Analogue  - Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio 

Limited Edition -  Audiophile Mastering - Pressed  at Pallas 

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head 20 Years pure Analogue

Pallas, where all Speakers Corner LPs are pressed, has done a good job with this reissue, which is free from surface pops and ticks. When comparing this new pressing of "Eroica" to the one that's part of the 1973 Odyssey boxed set of Beethoven symphonies [Odyssey Y7 30051], this Speakers Corner LP is clearly more resolving and has better image definition. It also has a blacker background with almost no surface noise, whereas the Odyssey edition has a distinctly grayish background noise that intrudes on the music and obscures some low-level detail. Both versions have some steeliness in the massed strings of the first movement, but Speakers Corner’s version is still clearly superior in every way and the one to own.- The Audio Beat

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op. 55 ("Eroica") - The Columbia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter

What would Beethoven have thought of all this? I think he would have been quite excited by Hollywood, and would have gladly written music for the big screen. In his own time he wrote a lot of music for the theatre, and he was always short of money. And he would have been so good at it! As to this recording — I doubt any performance in his own time could have touched it. I also believe he would have been well pleased with Walter's interpretation, just as in the early twentieth century, Gustav Mahler delighted in Walter's performances of his own newly minted symphonies.

This then is a truly wonderful performance. The greatness lies not in the perfection of the playing or the beauty of the sound, but in the realization of the composer's vision. Beethoven set out to change the world in this symphony, and Walter is with him all the way.

Recordings of classical repertoire in the Fifties and Sixties were made during a time of technical development, which is hardly given a thought in our day with its global digitalisation and mass reproduction. To appreciate the improvement offered by analogue recording technology as opposed to a high-quality mono reproduction, one can do no better than listen to the present rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3. Bruno Walter and his handpicked Columbia Symphony Orchestra present this major orchestral work with its heroic, revolutionary character as a grand symphonic undertaking. Thanks to the new studio technology, Beethoven’s 'new path', and his daring experiment with musical form and content is revealed with previously unheard of depth and amplitude. Just how prudently Walter approaches the score is shown again and again in the highly detailed reconstruction and finely chiselled rendition of passages for small ensembles. Instead of depending upon brusque contrasts of the elements, Walter’s conducting concentrates on exposing the wealth of differing styles and tonality in the score. This strategy of balancing out the contrasts blazed a trail for today’s unremitting search for the much-heralded original sound.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: January 1958 at Legion Hall, Hollywood (CA)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No.3 in E Flat Major, Opus 55, Eroica
Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Bruno Walter, Conductor

    I. Allegro Con Brio

    II. Funeral March (Adaglo Assai)
    III. Scherzo (Allegro Vivace)
    IV. Finale (Allegro Molto; Poco Andante)