IMMORTAL BELOVED

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of his birth, Sony Music Entertainment presents four major reissues devoted to Ludwig van Beethoven in its series of Classical Masters. Among the treasures in these new budget-priced sets are the complete symphonies, string quartets and violin sonatas performed by illustrious musicians of the past century.

Included in this batch is a widely varied 5-CD box of chamber music, recorded in the 1990s by two outstanding period-instrument ensembles. L’Archibudelli, performing on gut strings, are heard in Beethoven’s 3 Trios, op. 9, where “the playing could scarcely be more sprightly and volatile … They communicate their own relish of the music” (Gramophone), as well as in the famous “Ghost” and “Archduke” Piano Trios – with noted fortepianist Jos van Immerseel – and numerous lesser-known yet fascinating works. The American wind ensemble Mozzafiato is directed by the outstanding clarinettist Charles Neidich. Their single disc features the Octet op. 103, in which Gramophone praised the group’s “robust, full-bodied tone-quality … The oboe and bassoon solos which open the Andante second movement sound heavenly; the Minuet and Trio is cheerfully witty … and, in the Rondino, WoO 25, they deliciously reveal the music’s textural diversity.” In the Sextet op. 71, “Neidich’s clarinet playing, in particular, is absolutely stupendous … and his mellifluous virtuosity … is well matched by the other performers to demonstrate this group’s fine soloist skills as well as their strong corporate identity. Enchanting performances of the March, WoO 29 and the Duo for clarinet and bassoon, WoO 27 No. 1 complete Mozzafiato’s delightful and immensely enjoyable concert.”

Past praise for the original recordings that make up this set:

Beethoven composed the Octet, Op. 103 and Rondino, WoO25 sometime around 1792 and, although it was published separately, there is evidence to suggest that the Rondino was originally intended as the fourth movement of a five-movement work. Such is the view taken by the Classical Winds (Amon Ra) whose interpretation sounds convincing in a performance that effectively balances the music's emotional moods. By contrast, Mozzafiato play the Rondino after the Octet, suggesting that the Presto finale was written to replace the Rondino.

Both groups play on period instruments, but Mozzafiato's robust, full-bodied tone-quality creates a warmer, more broadly conceived result than the Classical Winds' hard, incisive edge: the oboe and bassoon solos which open the Andante second movement sound heavenly; the Minuet and Trio is cheerfully witty; a more flexible approach to the Presto finale produces a heightened dramatic effect and, in the Rondino, they deliciously reveal the music's textural diversity.

The differences between these two groups are even more pronounced in the Sextet, Op. 71. The Classical Winds' raw-edged tone and a tendency to slightly slower tempos give their version arelatively static quality in comparison to Mozzafiato's youthful freshness. Neidich's clarinet playing, in particular, is absolutely stupendous in this piece and his mellifluous virtuosity, especially in the faster outer movements, is well matched by the other performers to demonstrate this group's fine soloist skills as well as their strong corporate identity. Enchanting performances of the March, WoO29 and the Duo for clarinet and bassoon, WoO27 No. 1 complete Mozzafiato's delightful and immensely enjoyable concert.

-- GRAMOPHONE

The name explains all: archi is the Italian for bows and budella for gut strings. Centred around Anner Bylsma, this is an ensemble with "a special love for historical stringed instruments" so the booklet tells us, with the additional information that Bylsma himself plays a Gianfrancesco Pressenda cello of 1835 alongside the 1727 Stradivari violin of Vera Beths and the 1785 William Forster viola of Jürgen Kussmaul. Their distinctive, slightly reedy timbre certainly takes you back in imagination to days of yore when string trios were more often heard in stately homes than in large concert-halls.

Just in case any reader at this point might be fearing bespectacled pedantry, let me hasten to say that the playing could scarcely be more sprightly and volatile. At times I even wondered if these artists were over-immediate in response to every passing dot, dash and dynamic nuance. Now and again I felt Beethoven needed less impressionably malleable, more firmly drawn, classical lines. But that said, they communicate their own relish of the music enough to make nonsense of the charge that he was 'unenthusiastic' about the string trio medium. Once again—as with the splendid Mutter/Giuranna/Rostropovich 1989 DG recording of the complete trios—I found myself thinking that even if nothing else had come from his pen but these early works, he would still have been hailed as a genius.

As in Beethoven's even earlier set of piano trios, so again here it is the third in C minor that most clearly pre-echoes things to come. The players convey its urgency through very brisk tempos, strong dynamic contrast and pungent accentuation as well as warming to the slow movement's fuller texture enough to explain why after this work Beethoven did in fact move on to the sphere of the string quartet. The first G major Trio, in contrast, is all light and joy—despite the bite of their accents. But busy figuration from the lower strings in the course of the finale is allowed to sound scrub-brushy as well as bottom-heavy. In the suaver No, 2 in D, I thought the third movement too fast for a Menuetto, with insufficient rhythmic definition behind its teasing opening phrase (the latter is also true of the equally teasing last two bars of the finale's leading theme). But this movement, and even more the Andante, allows us to enjoy Bylsma's cello as never before. The recorded tone is forward but true.

-- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [9/1992]

Sony Classical is pleased to announce another ten releases in its increasingly comprehensive series of Classical Masters. These new budget-priced releases contain classic recordings, many of them newly remastered, by some of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. Once again, the series offers cornerstones of the symphonic repertoire, including two complete cycles. In the late 1980s, Günter Wand, one of the most respected interpreters of the Austro-German repertoire, recorded all the Beethoven symphonies with his Hamburg Radio (NDR) Symphony Orchestra. It is still a benchmark. Reviewing the complete cycle a few years ago, ClassicsToday.com wrote: “This is one of the most consistent of all modern Beethoven editions, capped by a Ninth that stands among the select performances of that work on disc … One of the things that makes these performances so special is Wand’s ability to create a truly athletic feeling of movement at any tempo, and in order to do that he has to pay attention not just to tiny details, but also to larger phrases and musical paragraphs … The Fifth Symphony has all of the grit and grandeur that Beethoven intended … the funeral march in the “Eroica” is one of the most noble on disc … the “Pastoral” captures the music’s earthiness and rusticity with memorable fidelity … Exceptionally well recorded, this Beethoven cycle belongs in every serious collection.”

The rich Glenn Gould discography is enlarging of a series of recordings performed by the artist between 1960 and 1963 for the television and now are presented for the frist time on disc, after a digital remastering. Glenn Gould had a personal propension for some Beethoven, specifically Variations, Op. 34 and Op. 35, of which he often performed live when he was younger. His interpretation of the two movements Adagio ma non torppo and the fuga of Sonata No. 110 are really something unique in his career as a performer and artist. These masterpieces are now available for the public and Gould fans.

These performances are outstanding: strong, polished and alive. One of the highlights is the Archduke, commandingly bold and immediate.

Stern, Rose and Istomin...offer playing which is consistently perceptive and satisfying... Their playing never seems to need more assertiveness: it encompasses the music with absolute naturalness and command of expression and with a marvellous sense of musical continuity. The Archduke is one of their best things: it simply unfolds before us.

-- Gramophone [10/1970]

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The performances are outstanding: strong, polished and alive... One of the highlights of the set is the Archduke, commandingly bold and immediate...; the Ghost Trio also shows these artists at their most communicative.

-- The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs & DVDs [2003/4 edition]

Can we get into Beethoven’s creative mind, especially in the last phase of his life when he was coping with severe hearing loss? Tom Beghin’s new recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Opus 109, 110, and 111 is an artistic exploration of how Beethoven’s musicking was shaped by the work environment he created with the help of colleagues and friends. Not only does pianist Tom Beghin perform Beethoven’s trilogy of pianistic masterpieces on a magnificent new replica of Beethoven’s Broadwood piano, he uses a reconstruction of the Gehormaschine that was mounted on the composer’s piano so he could continue to create music as his hearing declined. “You do hear better when you bring your head under this machine, don’t you?” Andre Stein asked Beethoven. Two centuries later, we too can bring our heads under the machine and wonder: Do we hear Beethoven differently? Beghin draws us inside the hearing machine, where we feel as well as hear the essence of Beethoven’s rambunctious and irresistibly poetic musical vibrations. Inside the Hearing Machine invites us into the multisensory playground of a deaf composer for whom the machine was more than a hearing aid and who interacted with his instrument through much more than sound.

[T]hose who want these classic and electrifying performances are going to find the sound dramatically improved, warmer and less strident.

-- BBC Music Magazine [reviewing the box set RCA 66656, of which these recordings were originally a part]

The visionary power, dramatic potency, and titanic flow of Furtwängler's wartime Beethoven symphony performances add up to listening experiences demanding as much as they reward. This is especially true in the 1944 Vienna "Eroica", the 1943 Berlin Fourth and Fifths, and a 1942 Berlin Ninth that pushes Beethoven's radical contours to their expressive limits. By contrast, this 1944 "Pastorale" paints a more foreboding, lugubrious outdoor landscape than the conductor's equally heavy-gaited, but more flowing post-war Vienna commercial recording. Maggi Payne's technical reconstructions appear to draw upon the same superior sources tapped for previous releases on Tahra and Deutsche Grammophon. The Ninth, though, resembles an earlier single-disc Music & Arts release in less impactive sound than Tahra's transfer. The booklet notes derive from John Ardoin's detailed and frank commentaries in his critical discography devoted to the conductor. Sonic reservations aside, these performances matter.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Ian Hart, Tim Pigott-Smith, Claire Skinner, Jack Davenport, Frank Finlay, Fenella Woolgar, Lucy Akhurst, Leo Bill, Peter Hanson, Robert Glenister, Anton Lesser. Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique / Sir John Eliot Gardiner

By the time the first public performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 (Eroica) took place in Vienna in 1805, a privileged few had already heard the work at a private play-through at the Lobkowitz Palace in June 1804.
Nick Dear’s award-winning period drama, starring Ian Hart as Beethoven, brings to life the momentous day that prompted Haydn to remark ‘everything is different from today’. Filmed in 2003.

Running time: 129 mins
Region Code: All regions
Picture format: 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM Stereo/DTS
Surround Menu language: EN
Subtitle languages: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT

R E V I E W S:

"You could not hope for a stronger cast." -- The Times

"A clever and beautifully made dramatisation." -- Sunday Times

"This was thrilling stuff, as exciting visually as it was aurally." -- Sunday Telegraph

"Ian Hart is brilliant as Beethoven, a volatile, magnetic figure of genius and uncouth charm…not to be missed." -- Daily Mail

Eroica is a semi-authentic dramatized account of the circumstances under which Beethoven’s Third Symphony was unleashed upon an Austrian aristocracy ill prepared to comprehend it, worried over the politics of the French Revolution, and yet somehow aware that it spoke of a world to come that would no longer be theirs. In this effort, the production is a smashing success....

The backdrop is a first rehearsal of the “Eroica” at the Lobkowitz palace. In a large drawing room, the musicians and illustrious guests assemble. The musicians are none other than the members of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, gussied up in full 19th-century Austrian costume. It must have been a real challenge to play in those ruffled cuffs, vests, and heavily adorned jackets, but they manage quite well. For the sake of authenticity, I presume, the female members of the ensemble have been sent packing....

The real art of this film lies in its silent acting. For long stretches, there is no dialogue at all. As the music unfolds, the actors in turn are shot up close, reacting to what they are hearing through intense facial expressions. Some are deeply moving, even disturbing, as in the Funeral March movement, where the camera focuses its lens on Count Dietrichstein. Here is the macho military man who has only words of criticism and disdain for Beethoven’s new symphony (which he maintains cannot even be called a “symphony”), fighting mightily to hold back his tears as the music recalls for him fellow soldiers fallen in battle....

I have complained in the past that in many instances DVDs of concert events have not yet figured out what to do with the visual dimension of the medium. This production offers a novel approach, and it is one that I really like. Part concert (Beethoven’s score is given in full) and part movie, it doesn’t really provide a lot of insight into why the “Eroica” is such a revolutionary work, but it does provide a magnificent snapshot of the cultural milieu into which the symphony was born, and the profoundly sublime to the profoundly ridiculous feelings it must have aroused in its first listeners.

Separate tracks in surround sound are included if you wish simply to listen to the symphony without watching the video, although even these tracks display a running score (ostensibly Beethoven’s original manuscript) interleaved with shots of the orchestra playing. I’m not going to rate the performance itself, because that is not the reason for buying this DVD. Gardiner and these same forces already recorded the “Eroica” on regular CD. The DVD is not the same performance.

This Prix d’Italia award-winning film from the BBC is urgently recommended.

-- Jerry Dubins, FANFARE

Discover Beethoven includes excerpts from the compositions that sealed Beethoven’s status as one of the greatest composers, such as “Moonlight” Sonata, Ninth Symphony, Fur Elise, and many more.; The Discover Series from Berlin Classic aims to make classics popular, firing people up about the music presented, regardless of musical taste.; Rather than focusing on complete works, this series focuses on individual pieces that have rewritten our musical history.

This set is offered at a special price: 5 discs for the price of 4.

This outstanding five-disc set includes the first 8 of Beethoven’s symphonies, as well as his “Coriolan” and “Egmont” Overtures. All of these works are performed by the Filarmonica della Scala, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini. Giulini studied at Italy’s finest conservatory at the time, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Giulini gained a reputation as a masterful conductor of opera. He was also a noted interpreter of Beethoven.

REVIEW:

This is a throwback to an older style of Beethoven playing…The sound is massive, full, and beautifully blended… [The performances] have a wonderfully spacious quality, and the slowish tempi allow the inner parts to sound with unusual clarity.

-- BBC Music Magazine

This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording

The Dover Quartet, “the young American string quartet of the moment” (The New Yorker), launches its emerging, three-volume complete Beethoven quartet cycle with the six Opus 18 quartets, often cited as the epitome of the classical string quartet as developed by Haydn and Mozart while foreshadowing Beethoven’s future innovations. 

This is Volume 5 in Paul Kim's traversal of the complete Beethoven Symphonies, arranged for piano in his own arrangements. Kim began his musical training in southern California and continued his studies at The Juilliard School. At the Manhattan School of Music he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from New York University. Among his teachers include Paul Jacobs, Gary Graffman, Solomon Mikowsky and Jerome Lowenthal. Besides his solo performing career as a concert pianist, Kim has also received attention for his performances with his musical family. With his wife Judith Jeon, a soprano, Kim has performed widely in lieder recitals. In 1995, he and his son Matthew Kim made their debut as a father-and-son piano duo with a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. The duo has expanded with the addition of Kim's younger son, James. The trio of pianists, Paul Kim & Sons, has since performed throughout the world, often in benefit concerts for various social and charitable causes.