Beethoven - Symphony No. 7 in A major: II. Allegretto

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René Leibowitz / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded in 1961 at the Walthamstow Town Hall, London

Pictured is René Leibowitz conducting the piece during the recording sessions. I've heard dozens of famous 7ths, none has stuck with me like this one - I have some other favorites for the second and fourth movements that I like just as much as Leibowitz', but I've never heard a better performance of the first movement. The dancing, singing woodwinds (then easily the strongest section of the RPO) and then that almost obscene brass outburst. Stunning, especially since despite extreme volume of the horns you can still hear the strings and the trumpets (who play along with the timpani) - which you can't even hear in most other recordings. Wilkinson did a great, great job here. I also like how stubborn and stomping Leibowitz performs the final movement, without any accerlando at all - which I think that makes the finale sound way too light most of the time. Leibowitz' control of the dynamics is amazing yet again in the coda, not just the buildup before the trumpet enters with a crescendo so tense, you feel as though the note would tear itself apart every second now - when it finally does and Leibowitz and Beethoven hammer the main theme into your ears with a relentlessness and bullishness that all to often absent from this cathartic piece of music.