The four releases in the Wiener Symphoniker's first full recorded Beethoven's symphony cycle met with universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Now the fifth part, in the form of the Symphony No. 9, is being released. The album is part of the Wiener Symphoniker's Road to Beethoven, a project to prepare for the year 2020, the 250th anniversary of the composer, a towering father-figure for classical music. With this new release, the Wiener Symphoniker are hoping to follow up on the great success of their four albums in the cycle. Both the first release with Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 and the second with Nos. 4 and 5 have been picked as "album of the month" by various international music magazines. The latest release Nos. 6 and 8 was awarded in France for Trophées Classique Radio. Based on these releases, the British Gramophone magazine nominated the orchestra for "Orchestra of the Year 2018". In particular, the magazine praised Jordan's approach of combining the classic Viennese sound with a more modern, leaner interpretation, original tempos and insights from historically informed performance. For Jordan, the content of the music was paramount. His goal was not to revere Beethoven as a monument but rather to present him in a more "natural, direct and personal" way.
The young Chinese pianist Jingge Yan is known for his intellectual profundity and the expressive vitality of his piano performance. His beautiful and philosophical interpretation of Beethoven's piano works has been greatly praised all over the world. In 2015, Jingge Yan was entitled the first 'Beethoven Ambassador' by the city Bonn and has been since then a dedicated leading musician for the music education for the youth and artistic communication between Europe and China. Since 2016 he has been pursuing an ambitious project: the complete recording of the piano sonatas, of which the third episode is now being released here. Jingge Yan, born in Beijing in 1986, had his first piano lessons at the age of four. From 2007 to 2011 he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio (USA) with Prof. Peter Takacs and graduated with a Bachelor's degree for piano and organ. At present he is continuing his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Prof. Pavel Gililov.
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Igor Levit, Xiaohan Wang, Cologne Chamber Orchestra
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Feb 12, 2021
In 2005 Igor Levit and Xiaohan Wang performed, together with the Kolner Kammerorchester under Helmut Müller-Brühl, as outstanding talents of the semi-final of the “International Beethoven Competition for Piano Bonn”. The competition had been initiated in the same year by the then President of the Federal Republic of Germany Horst Kohler. The young pianists, today successful all over the world, performed on that occasion Beethoven's piano concertos nos. 1 and 2. On this recording, Igor Levit performs the First Concerto, and Xiaohan Wang the Second.
When a double volume featuring Ivan Moravec was included in the 1999 “Great pianists of the 20th Century” box set (Philips Records), many a music lover was taken aback. Although Americans knew the Czech artist, owing mainly to the Connoisseur Society, a lot of European listeners and critics had overlooked him – yet the recordings contained in the edition certainly attested to Moravec being a pianist of global calibre. Repertoire magazine referred to him as the “most closely guarded secret of the classical music world”. The 90th anniversary of Ivan Moravec’s birth is a very good reason to for come up with a special project. The most complete collection of his recordings to date, the present Supraphon release encompasses 11 albums and a documentary and unique, previously unseen footage from the Czech Television archives. Moravec recorded his core repertoire for the Connoisseur Society, Supraphon, Dorian, Nonesuch and Vox labels. Some of his recordings are now being released on album for the first time. A number of older recordings have been remastered from the original analogue tapes. The set includes the complete Moravec repertoire of Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy, solo Franck, Janácek and Chopin’s Mazurkas. The booklet provides an exhaustive account of one of the greatest 20th-century pianist‘s artistic development, from the early 1960s to the end of the millennium. Most significantly, the release affords the listener the opportunity to revel in the music that – due to its sheer profundity, myriad colour shades and irresistibly personal delivery – touches one’s very heart. A portrait of a great artist.
Beethoven is regarded by many to be the greatest composer who ever lived, and this collection presents 30 essential recordings of his most well-known works. From the beautiful moods of lamentation in the 'Moonlight' Sonata to the amorous sophistication of Für Elise, and from the heroism of Fidelio to the mighty finale of the 'Choral' Symphony, every significant facet of Beethoven's monumental achievement is represented in this collection of exemplary performances from the Naxos catalogue. 2020 is the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, and the catalogues are already filling up with new releases to mark this significant event. What better then, to have a comprehensive audio guide to the best of his orchestral, chamber, vocal and piano music, providing an entertaining collection for both pleasure and discovery and a springboard into an entire world of great music that recently found it's summit in our 90-album boxed set of Beethoven's complete works.
In his first decade in Vienna, Beethoven seems to have been preoccupied with music for wind instruments. The best-known example is his Quintet in E flat major, Op. 16, which he arranged at the same time for piano quartet. He also wrote music for dances and settings of folk songs, and reflected the public’s interest in automata by writing for musical clock. The Napoleonic wars were mirrored in Beethoven’s music of the period, especially in his military compositions such as a series of Marches and the Equali, scored for trombones, which were later played at his funeral. The Naxos Beethoven Complete Edition 90-album boxed set (8.500250) features a host of fragments, sketches, drafts, arrangements, transcriptions and reconstructions. Following Sergio Gallo’s Piano Pieces and Fragments (8.574131) and the Fine Arts Quartet’s Fugues and Rarities for String Quartet (8.574051) albums, this new release includes many lesser-known works that will attract connoisseurs and completists, and casual listeners as well.
Beethoven: Celebration Of The 250th / Sophia Agranovich
Centaur Records
CD
$17.99Feb 12, 2021
This is a program featuring some of Beethoven's greatest piano works, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of his Birth. A native of Ukraine, Sophia Agranovich is an internationally acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and educator. Sophia Agranovich is “a bold, daring pianist in the tradition of the Golden Age Romantics…A tigress of the keyboard” – Fanfare. Her performances are captivating audiences by the “orison of uncommon beauty” – Audiophile, “the extraordinary dramatic urgency”, “the ideal balance she achieves between the intellectual and the emotional” – Fanfare, “interpretation that dares to be different”, “magnificent shading and superior musicianship” – American Record Guide. Her previous releases for Centaur have been met with wide critical acclaim.
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor" - Variations - 11
ICA Classics
CD
$14.99May 28, 2013
This is volume two of Ingrid Jacoby's complete set of Beethoven Piano Concertos. This strongly projected performance of Beethoven's Concerto No.5 is complemented by an all-Beethoven recital which Jacoby recorded in 1991/92, featuring sets of variations, the Andante favori and the op. 119 Bagatelles.
Glenn Gould maintained a very peculiar relationship, a sort of love and hate, with Beethoven's music, which he performed out of any traditional scheme or system. This CD presents two further Beethoven rarities in live recordings by the Canadian pianist, the first being the Piano Concerto No.1 in C, op. 15, recorded in Turin, Italy on 23 January 1951 when Gould was only nineteen. The Piano Concerto No.3 in c, op. 37, with the Canadian Radio Orchestra under conductor Heinz Unger, was recorded four years later, on 21 February 1955. This very significant addition to the discography of Glenn Gould furthers the image of this eclectic, fascinating and singular artist.
Mari Kodama concludes her Beethoven sonata cycle with two of the composer’s most challenging works from both technical and interpretive standpoints. Happily, Op. 101 finds her in top pianistic and musical fettle. Following an eloquent and easily flowing first movement, Kodama navigates the Scherzo’s obsessive march rhythms, tricky balances, and difficult-to-articulate trills with impressive clarity, poise, and drama, and brings similar qualities to the knotty fugal finale.
For all of her proficient finger work in the “Hammerklavier” sonata’s first movement, Kodama tends to round off phrases, play down accents, and soften dynamic extremes. Her smooth and careful dispatch of the Scherzo Trio’s upward F major scales robs this gesture of its climactic impact. At the end of the movement the main theme briefly appears in the remote key of B minor, and by underlining it with an unsubtle ritard Kodama misjudges this effect’s sense of deadpan surprise. In Kodama’s hands the slow movement seems more of an Andante con moto than Beethoven’s Adagio sostenuto, although her nuanced handling of the right hand’s elaborate singing lines saves the day.
In the fourth movement’s opening Largo, Kodama imposes a gratuitous and dramatically ineffective ritard in the brief G-sharp minor contrapuntal outburst, and she begins the gradually accelerating syncopated chords leading into the fugue too quickly. The fugue itself begins in a crisp, characterfully light manner, yet Kodama’s basic tempo slightly decreases over time and her articulation becomes more generalized as the music grows in textural complexity (a tendency with most pianists in this movement, to be fair). In other words, more daring, leonine “Hammerklavier” performances of recent vintage by Georg Friedrich Schenck and Stewart Goodyear hold stronger appeal. No question, however, that Kodama’s outstanding Op. 101 is one of her cycle’s high points, and the sonics (in both multi-channel and conventional stereo playback modes) match the superb consistency distinguishing this series’ eight previous volumes.
The Delian Quartet’s approach to the first numbered of Beethoven’s string quartets (not actually the first one he wrote, however) is nothing if not distinctive. In an interview printed in the accompanying booklet, the Delian players (it is not indicated which of them is speaking at any given point) identify this work as “one of the larger Beethoven string quartets,” and their interpretation is clearly guided by such a perception. To these musicians, the work is not “early Beethoven” but just Beethoven, and they de-emphasize its high spirits in favor of deep seriousness. Their interpretation is an expansive one in terms of tempo. Surveying 13 other performances of this work I have on CD in my collection, I find that three of them exceed the Delian’s timing in the slow movement, the 1952 Budapest Quartet by a small amount, the 1991 Tokyo Quartet by bit more, and the 1936 Calvet Quartet by a lot. With those three exceptions, the Delian players’ timings are the longest in every movement. Nonetheless, their tempos do not seem excessively slow in the context of their overall approach, and there is also a good degree of flexibility in their handling of tempo. The performance has its own kind of momentum, but the Delian players are less concerned with urgency and linear flow than with precise articulation, pronounced vertical stresses, and a distinct statement and characterization of each phrase. I felt that they underplay some of the peaks, for instance, the angry minor-key outbursts in the development of the first movement. In the second movement, said to have been inspired by the tomb scene of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the anger and despair build up gradually and reach their zenith only near the end. The trio of the third movement is less assertive than in many performances. The finale would not seem slow if one were not aware that everyone else plays it faster, and I much appreciate the very clean articulation of rapid runs, which some distinguished ensembles that favor a more breathless approach do not achieve. Technically, the playing is highly accomplished, with sumptuous, well-rounded tone, accurate intonation, and precise ensemble. Balances are impeccable and textures are very clear, in keeping with the ensemble’s evident desire that each strand of music should be heard distinctly. I find the Delian approach to this work interesting and rewarding; others might find it studied.
Beethoven’s C-Major String Quintet dates from 1801, the same year as the revised version of op. 18/1 that is nearly always the one played today. I have never understood why the quintet fails to attract the degree of attention and veneration accorded the quartets. It’s a gorgeous, imposing work, about 35 minutes in duration and full of invention and dazzling compositional skill. The Delian Quartet feels that it “contains inklings of the Beethoven of the middle and late periods,” but I think it also has some strong reminiscences of Mozart. It receives a fine performance from these musicians, assisted by violist Gérard Caussé. Their characteristics of precise articulation, shapely phrasing, and clear textures are again in evidence, but the playing seems a bit freer and more spontaneous than in the quartet. Tempos are once again on the deliberate side, but one wouldn’t know it without comparisons, since they seem quite appropriate. Here my comparisons are limited to four: the Endellion (Warner), Tokyo (RCA), and Zürich (Brilliant) quartets, and the 1945 Budapest Quartet recording on Sony. The Delian’s first movement tempo seems consistent with the Allegro moderato marking and works well. At a much faster pace, the Endellion is urgent but sometimes rushed. The Tokyo Quartet is closer to the Delian tempo but offers a more blended sound, with less clarity of texture. The poignant slow movement is nicely shaped and well sustained in the Delian rendition, while the scherzo is lively without being overly fast and has a grandeur that is missing from the rather hurried Endellion performance. The finale too is effectively paced, with a pronounced contrast in tempo between the Presto and Andante sections that is sometimes missing in other performances.
The op. 137 Fugue for String Quintet dates from 1817 and lasts under two minutes. In style it is suggestive of some of the fugal movements or sections in Beethoven’s late works. The Delian performance is once again comparatively deliberate and very clearly articulated, with exemplary clarity of texture. Those of the Endellion and Zürich quartets (coupled with their recordings of the op. 29 quintet) are quicker and livelier.
The Delian performances are recorded in clear, detailed, and tightly focused sound, with minimal reverberation, qualities I have come to associate with the Oehms label. With its distinctive rendering of the quartet and compelling one of the underrated quintet, this release deserves an enthusiastic recommendation.
Music for wind ensemble was a regular part of entertainment in Beethoven’s day, and his Octet was composed for the skilled players in the service of his patron, the Archbishop-Elector in Bonn. The charming and skillfully written Sextet is also ‘from my early things and, what’s more, was written in one night’; impressing a critic of the time ‘by its splendid melodies, leisurely harmonic flow, and wealth of new and surprising ideas.’ Wind partitas often opened with a March, and the Rondino was originally intended as the Finale to the Octet, two suitable pieces to complete this fashionable Beethoven soiree.
A leading authority on the fortepiano, Jos Van Immerseel has devised a programme focusing on the music Beethoven composed for a Viennese piano with a range of five octaves. This includes the finest keyboard music from Beethoven’s early Viennese period, more specifically works written between 1795 and 1804. For this recording, the Flemish pianist has used the composer’s extant autograph manuscripts or the first editions published shortly after composition, as well as the latest critical edition by Jonathan Del Mar (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2017-18). The writings of Carl Czerny, one of Beethoven’s most important ‘pupils’, were also a significant source of information. With his customary attention to the instrumentarium, Jos Van Immerseel has opted for a five-octave Viennese grand fortepiano by Christopher Clarke, a masterly replica, built in 1988, of an instrument by Walter, whom Beethoven himself selected in 1802 from among the sixty or so Viennese piano makers of the time.
Beethoven: Concerto No. 3 & Triple Concerto / Helmchen, Manze, German Symphony Orchestra Berlin
Alpha
CD
$20.99Nov 13, 2020
German pianist Martin Helmchen continues his journey through Beethoven’s piano concertos with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Andrew Manze. In the Third Concerto, published in 1804, Beethoven seems to be moving away from the Mozartian model and inaugurates his ‘middle period,’ using the minor mode to depict a distress and heartache that are certainly not unconnected with the famous ‘Heiligenstadt Testament,’ which he wrote in 1802 to record his growing deafness. Martin Helmchem is joined by two partners with whom he performs a great deal of chamber music- violinist Antje Weithaas and cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker- to record the Triple Concerto, also written during the composer’s so-called ‘heroic’ period.
Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, and SONY Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible EU (Germany) pressed import editions, smartly-designed and graphically-pleasing, featuring the most sought-after recordings by the world’s preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24bit High Resolution Audio.
Beethoven: 13 Times the Same and 13 Times Different / Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra
Naxos
CD
$14.99$29.99Save 50%May 28, 2021
G-G-G-E flat, better known as "Ta-ta-ta-taaa", are perhaps the four most famous notes in all of classical music, four notes that almost the whole world knows. They form the opening motif of the 5th Symphony in C minor, Opus 67 by Ludwig van Beethoven. In various interpretations by Otto Klemperer, Michael Gielen, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Ádám Fischer, among others, the range of Beethoven's reception at the turn of the millennium is to be compared. At the end the whole symphony will be heard under Robert Trevino: Hear, discover and compare.
The Berkeley Ensemble returns with this album of chamber works by Ludwig van Beethoven celebrating the composer’s 250th anniversary year. Written in 1798, when he was already well-known in Vienna as a remarkable and ambitious composer, his Op. 11 Trio uses the rare combination of clarinet, cello and piano. Completing the programme is the original scoring of his Septet, Op.20 for wind and strings. Written in 1800, this large-scale work stands as a lasting achievement unmatched by any other septet before or since.
The Dresdner Philharmonie is one of Germany's major orchestras and has laid, together with his Principal Conductor Michael Sanderling, its focus on recording the complete cycle of symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) und Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). After having released Beethoven's and Shostakovich's symphonies nos. 6 in 2015, for which the orchestra has received positive reviews, this recording is the second album from the cycle. Michael Sanderling decided to pair Beethoven's symphony no. 3 and Shostakovich's symphony no. 10 because of the similar motivation of both composers: to display the current political situation, i.e. Napoleon's reign and Stalin's dictatorial regime.
Brilliant Classics proudly presents the brand-new 5-album sets series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Bach Famous Cantatas, Dvorák Complete Concertos and Symphonic Poems. Mozart Complete Wind Concertos and Serenades, Beethoven Complete Violin Sonatas and Cello Sonatas and Sibelius Complete Symphonies and Symphonic Poems. World class performers include Staatskapelle Dresden with Herbert Blomstedt, Netherlands Bach Collegium with Pieter Jan Leusink, Klára Würtz, Timora Rosler, Kristóf Baráti, Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester with Kurt Sanderling and others. The fresh and colorful artwork is eye-catching while the booklet contains liner notes in English. A new series at an unbeatable price! The present release features Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas and cello sonatas, performed by Timora Rosler, Klara Wurtz, and Kristof Barati.
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REVIEW:
This is not something I’ve ever said before, and I don’t say it lightly now, but no matter how many other sets of Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas you may have—unless you’re a die-hard fan of versions by Heifetz or Grumiaux, Francescatti/Casadesus, Menuhin/Kempff, Stern/Istomin, Szeryng/Haebler, or one of the more recent period-instrument renditions—you might as well give them away to friends or Goodwill, because once you’ve heard Baráti and Würtz, you’ll never listen to anyone else again.
