After reviewing Eugen Jochum's complete Beethoven Symphony set with the Concertgebouw on Philips, an excellent set he recorded in the late Sixties, I realized I had not heard all of his later Beethoven recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra on EMI from the late Seventies. Why he decided to record them all over again just ten years later, I have no idea, especially since the earlier Philips set was so good, and since the EMI set was actually his third complete set in stereo, the first on DG in the Fifties with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bavarian RSO. Maybe he figured he could get even better sound from EMI, or maybe he thought he had something more to say about the music. He was conductor laureate of the LSO at the time, so maybe that had something to do with it. Who knows.
In any case, I had only heard his Beethoven Third and Sixth Symphonies from the LSO set, so I decided to track down a copy of his Ninth, as that was not only Beethoven's crowning jewel but the best thing in Jochum's Concertgebouw set as well. When I found it, the EMI rendition did not disappoint me. Excellent sound, too.
John J. Puccio
Classical Candor