Beethoven - Leonore review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the month

The Guardian 80

Petersen/Schmitt/Ivashchenko/Johannsen/Freiburg Baroque O/Jacobs
(Harmonia Mundi, two CDs)
Leonore was Beethoven’s first version of Fidelio and René Jacobs eloquently champions the earlier score in this lithe live recording

As we know it today, Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera, was first performed in 1814. But it had begun life in 1805 as Leonore, when its premiere in Vienna, to an audience largely made up of French officers from Napoleon’s occupying army who could not understand any of the German text, had been a disaster. Beethoven revised the score immediately, cutting swathes and recasting the original three acts into two, but he was still unhappy with the result, which was withdrawn after two performances the following year. When it emerged again, eight years later, both the music and the words had been even more substantially altered, and this time the premiere was a huge success.

Jacobs' tempi are generally on the fast side, though the superb, crisp playing of the period-instrument Freiburg Baroque Orchestra ensures they never seem too hectic