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one particularly cold morning, the classic London fog advancing into the rehearsal hall itself. He experienced Mahler’s symphonies at first hand under the likes of Klemperer (No 2), Horenstein (No 3) and Solti (No 4). What this excellent Mahler cycle can’t do, however, is repeat the shock quality of the famous Beethoven cycle from the same stable a decade ago. Suddenly a set of those all-too-familiar symphonies appeared to achieve that magical and elusive combination of modern playing techniques and the energy and scholarly proprieties of the ‘authentic’ movement. Zinman first attempted to conduct the Beethoven symphonies in accord with the composer’s own metronome markings two decades earlier, initially in Rochester in the mid-1970s and then with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra between 1985 and 1998. When he brought three of the symphonies to Carnegie Hall in 1988, he was taking them at a pace that many of his older colleagues had believed to be technically impossible. ‘Beethoven was not an idiot,’ said Zinman at the time. ‘I think he knew what he wanted. It’s just that we can’t believe from our distance that people played it that fast, because we have been lumbering along since Wagner’s time.’

For those celebrated Arte Nova recordings, Zinman was certainly grateful for his good fortune in being able to record ‘with an orchestra that can do it’, but he also had another trump card, namely a hall he describes as ‘an instrument in itself ’. ‘In this hall you can play very crisply and very short and it still has a nice ring to it and the music continues…We try to understand together how to play music fast but not make it sound overheated. I found I had to create a pulse that is slow. The orchestra feels an inner animation from these speeds, because it forces them to play with an intensity they don’t otherwise get. That’s what you hear on those recordings. We did full-movement takes, as a first master. Then we listened and made a second master, also complete. The next takes are long bits and then, if you just don’t have something, you do little inserts and that’s it.’ Zinman is also very proud

‘Playing the same piece again and again with different orchestras during a season? I hate that’

of a new three-CD set of the Brahms symphonies – his first ever live recordings. ‘There are advantages and disadvantages to live recording,’ he says. ‘Generally, in a live performance the orchestra plays with great excitement and panache, but they tend to overplay as well. In big, long works they also get tired towards the end. In a session, you can take the hard parts and do them first and you can cultivate certain things differently after hearing a playback. Sessions are much more like making a movie and live concerts are like being in the theatre.’

For the Brahms set, Zinman and the orchestra had to make a virtue out of necessity, because their record label had no appetite for taking a Brahms cycle into the studio. At the instigation of the orchestra’s board president, they recorded the concerts across two evenings with their regular recording team, did some patching and then offered the finished product to BMG, who seized it gladly. ‘I’ve been playing these symphonies over the years with the Tonhalle Orchestra and we have a deep understanding of them,’ says Zinman. ‘The Tonhalle is a very old hall. You can hear lots of creaks and the audience can be very noisy, but Elmar [Weingarten, Intendant at the Tonhalle] came out beforehand and made a very funny speech, saying how nice it would be if they really didn’t contribute to the recording in any way.’ He believes the recordings work because the musicians are ‘comfortable with what they’re doing and the interpretation…What we do is something that’s been cultivated over the years…it’s the same as with Beethoven, Schumann and Mahler.’

Zinman has made 50 appearances with the New York Philharmonic since he first conducted it in June 1973. This spring, during the first three weeks of March, he returns to lead The Modern Beethoven: A Philharmonic Festival. He will conduct six of the symphonies (numbers 1-4, 7 and 8) in pairs across 11 concerts. Each programme will also include a 20th-century concerto: Stravinsky’s Capriccio for piano and orchestra, Barber’s Cello Concerto and Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre for violin and strings. ‘Alan Gilbert wants to put another way of thinking into that orchestra,’ explains Zinman. ‘When I first came to Zurich we invited a lot of period-type conductors…There was always the influx of these other ideas…There was always this idea the players would be flexible… The musicians are getting younger and younger – so they haven’t grown up with Furtwängler, they’ve grown up with John Eliot Gardiner.’

At 75, Zinman certainly retains his sense of musical curiosity: ‘I am always interested in doing new stuff. Playing the same piece again and again with different orchestras during a season? I hate that. I like to have different pieces throughout the season, so I am not repeating myself. It’s harder, but more interesting.’

I have no doubt that Zinman, the orchestra and Beethoven will set Avery Fisher Hall ablaze. Zinman is truly 75 years young; I leave Zurich hoping – and believing – that the best is yet to come for him.

ZinMan on ZinMan Four recommended recordings

Mahler Symphony No 9 Zurich tonhalle Orchestra / David Zinman RCA b B Í 88697 72690-2 ‘I was quite happy, especially with the last movement.’

Beethoven: Symphony No 3, ‘Eroica’. Symphony No 4 Zurich tonhalle Orchestra / David Zinman Arte Nova Classics S 74321 59214-2 ‘I like all the Beethoven symphonies, but No 4 has something very special about it, I think – especially as far as speeds and drive are concerned, capturing the character of it. This is the most successful record I have made.’

Brahms: Symphonies Nos 1–4 Zurich tonhalle Orchestra / David Zinman RCA M 88697 93349-2 ‘Really really nice. It’s actually the first live recording I ever made. I like No 2 very much – and No 1, No 3 and No 4, too…’

Elgar: Violin Concerto Gil shaham vn Chicago symphony Orchestra / David Zinman Canary Classics F CC06 ‘This is on Shaham’s own label. I think he loved doing it. It’s my other live recording…It was for the radio and the engineer who did the editing is a good guy and he managed to make a really good live recording.’

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GRAMOPHONE JAnuAry 2012 III