Recorded 1930 and 1933. Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer Mark Obert-Thorn.Naxos Historical’s complete Beethoven symphonic cycle conducted by Felix Weingartner is complemented this month by an unusual programme featuring the conductor’s own orchestration of Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata. Published in 1926, Weingartner’s orchestration comprises essentially the same orchestral forces as the Symphony No. 5 the conductor’s choice of specific instruments or groups to highlight leading voices and achieve textural transparency is both clear-sighted and well focused. This new release also features the 1933 LPO performance of the Symphony No. 5, the last of Weingartner’s commercial recordings of the work. While it does not possess as incisive or urgently driven a demeanour as the previous version with the British Symphony Orchestra, it is a more corporately secure and central reading that has Weingartner’s customary authority stamped all over it. Mark Obert-Thorn’s superb transfers have been one of the major selling points of this series, and this seventh issue proves to be no exception. `It somehow confronts you with the quintessential Beethoven, free of any interpretative dressing up or adornment … [a] selfless and total identification with Beethoven’s world. Never at any stage is one tempted to think of Weingartner’s Beethoven.´ Gramophone.