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Hollow pathos is not his thing. From an artist like Mariss Jansons Friedrich Schiller's Ode: ''An die Freude'' must receive a far deeper significance, which also fully encompasses the doubt and profound hope embodied in this text. And thus, in Jansson's recording of the Ninth Symphony, the choral finale does not degenerate to mere superficial orgy of jubilation, but rather becomes a delicately balanced, wisely developed drama. On October 27, 2007 teh Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks played Beethoven's Ninth in the presence of the Pope in the Vatican. The recording of this memorable concert is now being released by Br-Klassik.

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PIANO CONCERTO NO.1

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The Collegium Vocale Gent and Orchestre des Champs-Elysées interpret Beethoven's Missa Solemnis for PHI. This major work of the sacred repertoire, high on the list alongside Bach's Mass in B minor and the Mozart Requiem, is Beethoven's longest work and assuredly the one that demanded the most work. The composer even considered the Mass his finest work. Philippe Herreweghe shares this opinion and judges the Missa Solemnis to be one of the apogees in the history of classical music. With four superb soloists, a refined chorus and orchestra, Philippe Herreweghe invites us to a thoroughly transcendental experience.

BEETHOVEN: String Quartets, Vol. 5

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For the first time in their history, the Wiener Symphoniker will release a complete Beethoven symphonies cycle. The Wiener Symphoniker wrote music history with the first performances of works by Bruckner, Ravel and Schoenberg. And under the baton of such illustrious music directors as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini or Georges Prêtre they acquired worldwide fame for their unique Viennese sound. Considering its rich, more than a century long history, it comes as a surprise that the orchestra has never before recorded a full cycle of the nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven which are widely considered to constitute the apex of the symphonic repertoire. This shortcoming is about to be remedied: Starting in autumn 2017, the Wiener Symphoniker will release the full cycle on 5 albums. With a new release of the series to be issued every 6 months, the full cycle will be completed just in time for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven in 2020. The symphonies were recorded live during a critically acclaimed concert cycle in Spring/Summer 2017 in the Great Hall of the Musikverein Wien. At these concerts, the international press specifically praised Jordan’s approach to combining a traditional Viennese sound with a more contemporary, slimmed down interpretation of the material, original tempi and insights from the historically informed performance practice. Through a close reading of the score and by focusing on the content of the works, Jordan aimed to create – in his words – a “more natural, direct, humanised“ image of the famous composer.

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It is always a milestone in the artistic work of the Berliner Philharmoniker when, together with their chief conductor, they play the complete symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven. Under the direction of chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle, the cycle was performed at the end of 2015 – in Berlin, Paris, Vienna and New York. The reaction was overwhelming, and audiences responded with standing ovations to performances which impressively revealed the virtuosity and revolutionary energy of the works. The recording of the Berlin performances is now available in an exclusive hardcover edition which includes the cycle on CD as well as in HD video and high-resolution audio on Blu-ray. This beautifully produced edition includes many extras including a video introduction with Sir Simon Rattle and a documentary about the making of the recordings.

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

Beethoven expended little effort over arranging his Violin Concerto for piano. He left the orchestration intact, reproduced the solo part more or less verbatim, and added just enough left-hand accompaniment to keep the soloist interested. Although he didn't provide cadenzas for the violinist, Beethoven left the pianist four from which to choose, including a wild fantasia that culminates in petulant exchanges between piano and timpani. Perhaps this concoction always will remain a curio, yet a few recent recordings elevate Op. 61a to a genuine work of stature--most notably the stylish, virile, and committed Suk/Baley (TNC) and Berezovsky/Dausgaard (Simax). So does this remarkable 1969 Peter Serkin/Seiji Ozawa collaboration, but in a completely different manner.

They consistently emphasize breadth and lyricism, and justify their uncommonly slow first-movement tempo by virtue of focused, impeccably accented phrasing that is rhythmically precise yet so vibrant and full-bodied that nothing ever sounds static or rigid. Certainly the robust sonics help, along with the New Philharmonia Orchestra's warm, responsive, and songful execution. It's all too easy for a pianist to reduce the sparse piano writing to surface tinkling, yet even Serkin's most delicate nuances and rounded cadences convey firmness and a sure sense of direction--all the more reason to welcome ArkivMusic.com's on-demand reissue of this long overlooked and underrated recording in a rare Japanese RCA reprint. You can obtain it coupled with the Serkin/Ozawa Schoenberg Piano Concerto, or as here: alongside the pianist's sparkling, cultured, and wittily nuanced Mozart F major K. 459 concerto, featuring like-minded support from the English Chamber Orchestra under Alexander Schneider's shapely and sensitive direction. Booklet notes are in Japanese only, but given such revelatory music making, who cares?

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

...the two 1980 concerto performances she made, as director/pianist, with the London Sinfonietta. Of the two it’s the Haydn that is the more immediately appealing, not that the Beethoven is disappointing, with its lissom drive, rhythmic verve and incision in the outer movements and a penetrating stillness and beauty of tone in the slow movement with its superbly realised cadenza.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
reviewing these performances previously released as RCA 98836

For music lovers, some numbers are inextricably linked to a particular composer or genre: with Beethoven, it is 32, the number of piano sonatas with opus numbers. Three sonatas in minor keys have been selected from opuses comprising several independent works by Tam�s �rdi, of whose playing Zolt�n Kocsis said: "His touch on the keyboard is far more sensitive than that of sighted people. In his playing, in certain dynamic ranges there is a sensitivity that for us is simply not possible. I would go so far as to say that this ability could be gauged as Chopinesque." Pianist Tam�s �rdi lost his eyesight as a result of an oxygen overdose in a defective incubator. His interest in music was discovered at a very young age. His teachers use a unique method called "the structural method" to teach Tam�s play the piano, whereby he virtually "recomposes" the music he is introduced to.

There is hardly a better way to approach Ludwig van Beethoven than through his piano concertos. Beethoven’s own instrument was the piano, and in his improvisations – which made him the darling of the Viennese salons – he merged virtuosity and unbridled expression. The piano concertos give a clear idea of these performances. At the same time, they are prime examples of Beethoven’s ability to create large orchestral works with seemingly endless arcs of tension. The complete recording of all five works with Mitsuko Uchida and Sir Simon Rattle was one of the most spectacular projects of the Berliner Philharmoniker during the Rattle era – and at the same time the highlight of the collaboration between the orchestra and the pianist, which began in 1984. The performances were given a rapturous reception in the auditorium and in the press – as one critic wrote, the audience was overwhelmed by a “collective sense of happiness”. With vibrant freshness, the performances brought the whole combative energy of these works to life. At the same time, they revealed Beethoven’s incomparable spirituality, which – according to Mitsuko Uchida – “allows us to see to the end of the universe”.

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REVIEW:

Uchida takes enormous care over articulation, clarity, voicing and dynamics. And this is true in the simplest passages as well as the most virtuoso. Uchida’s fastidious articulateness makes every stitch count, yet her phrasing is generous, so the detail always remains in its rightful place as part of a larger unfolding. What’s most valuable about these performances, I think, is their exploration of the music’s dramatic potential.

– Gramophone

OehmsClassics presents volume 10 of the complete Beethoven sonata cycle. In 1976, Michael Korstick traveled to the United States to study at Julliard. He became known as “Dr. Beethoven” and ever since, experts have agreed that Michael Korstick is one of the most important German pianists of our time. The first volume of this series won the “Discovery of the Year” award given by German record critic, Joachim Emperor. Volumes 2 and 4 won this award as well as the MIDEM classical award.

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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.”

SONATAS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO

For this sixth volume in Quartetto di Cremona’s exploration of the complete Beethoven String Quartets, the ensemble tackles the String Quartet in A major, Op. 18, No. 5, and the String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130, pairing an early piece and a late piece to give some insight into the composer’s development. In both of these compositions, Beethoven’s incorporation of folk music can be seen. In other aspects, these two works are vastly different, the earlier showing his enthusiastic and uplifting style, and the later showing his passionate and sometimes brooding methods. Quartetto di Cremona has been internationally lauded for their “extremely mature and lyrical sound.” (Strad) The group formed at the Stauffer Academy in Cremona in 2000, and since then has acquired an extensive repertoire.

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As the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth approaches, and following a much-admired version of the Diabelli Variations (Alpha 386 – Gramophone Editor’s Choice), Martin Helmchen has decided to record his complete piano concertos in the company of musical partners with whom he has a special affinity, Andrew Manze and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. They devote this first volume to the Concertos nos. 2 and 5, giving lovingly polished performances of these two masterpieces of the piano repertory. Composed even before Concerto ‘no. 1’, the ‘Second’ Concerto was premiered in Vienna in 1795, when Beethoven was only twenty-five years old, but underwent several revisions before being published in its final version in 1801. Concerto no. 5 is the last that Beethoven composed. Though completed in 1808, it was not premiered until 1811. Beethoven normally gave the first performance of his concertos himself, but this time his increasing deafness meant he was unable to do so.

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REVIEW:

Theirs is to all appearances a straight-down-the-middle approach. Yet it does stand high and proud for its artistry, poetry, stylish musicianship and, perhaps above all, rapport between soloist and conductor. This really does feel like a meeting of minds.

– Gramophone

Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) was one of the most respected pianists of the 20th century. Known for his depth of interpretation, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire, he is possibly the most popular Russian pianist of recent generations. He gave his first recital in 1934 at the Engineers Club of Odessa, three years before he began formally studying piano. He is now an icon for record collectors. Included in this new release from DOREMI are Beethoven works from broadcasts recorded in 1963, 1973, and 1986. These live performances are presented here in excellent remastered sound. All items presented on this album are first release ever.

Complete variations for cello and piano – 2 complete performances on modern and period instruments.

GRAMMY award winning pianist Lambert Orkis and Principal cellist for the National Symphony Orchestra, David Hardy, have delivered an entirely new way to hear this spectacular repertoire. This 4 disc set provides the listener with 2 completely different listening experiences for these pieces. First, the works are performed as they are most often heard in performance today, on a modern piano and the cello strung with steel strings. Next, the listener is transported into the time that the works were originally written with a second complete performance on 3 period correct forte pianos, and with the cello now strung with traditional gut strings.

The difference in tone colors is not the only contrast between the two interpretations of these Beethoven masterworks. Both performers, are each masters of modern and period performance practice, and they both adjust performance practice and interpretations in the two versions. That also contribute to the accompanying notes for the album.

With this new series entitled ‘Salon de musique’, Alpha presents recordings made by artists who have enlivened the Fesival of Salon de Provence for some years now: the pianist Eric le Sage, who has made many recordings for Alpha, the clarinettist Paul Meyer, and others. With cellist Claudio Bohórquez, they have now recorded two Beethoven trios. By 1798, the year Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Trio for piano, clarinet and cello op.11, he was already well-known in Vienna as a remarkable improviser and an ambitious young composer. The piece was clearly aimed at the enlightened aristocracy, as well as competent musical amateurs. This did not prevent the critics, though universally positive, from judging the score to be over-complex in places. Dedicated to the Empress Marie-Theresa of Austria, the Septet was published in 1802 by Hofmeister, and upon being well-received it was then rearranged for various combinations. Beethoven himself made a version for clarinet, cello and piano, op.38 in E Flat major – the one recorded here.

SONATES POUR PIANO

An unrivalled compendium on disc of the Beethoven’s compositional laboratory, full of experiments that would be refined throughout his career to create the piano’s ‘New Testament’ of 32 sonatas. Under the title of ‘early variations’, Alessandro Commellato has brought together all those theme with variation sets for solo and four hands piano that were not included in the main catalogue of Beethoven's compositions. In fact not all of them are early: the imposing C minor 32 Variations WoO80 are the best-known work here, composed as late as 1806, and the sets on Rule Britannia and God save the King were written a year or two earlier, and perhaps not only for commercially expedient reasons, given Beethoven’s admiration for the British resistance to the proclamation of the French Empire. More common, however, are the variation sets where Beethoven was establishing his voice and refining his technique by exercising his imagination on melodies from popular marches and operas by Grétry, Paisiello and Mozart. The composer used these works to curry favour with patrons such as Prince Lichnowsky; even on occasion as dedicatory gifts in order to make amends for his notoriously obstreperous behaviour, such as the variations on a Dittersdorf arietta, ‘Es war einmal’ (Once upon a time) which he gave in the summer of 1792 to Eleonore von Breuning, daughter of Maria Helena, who had welcomed the young wayward artist into her home. Alessandro Commellato uses an 1823 fortepiano by Joseph Böhm, a Viennese piano-maker whose instruments were known to Beethoven, bestowing on this recording an unusual degree of authenticity. He is a specialist in historically informed performances of Viennese Classicism: previous discs for Brilliant Classics include music by Beethoven’s pupils such as the cello sonatas of Ferdinand Ries and piano concertos by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

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REVIEW:

Commellato’s choice of specific instruments for particular works is a personal one, and it is always well-considered. There are five different fortepianos heard here, each with its own unique sound, with the earliest having very distinctly harpsichord-like characteristics and the latest (dating to 1823) beginning to possess some of the range and tone of the more-familiar instruments created later in the 19th century. All in all, this is a fascinating foray into less-known Beethoven and into a form that the composer used in his piano music throughout his life, right through to the second and concluding movement of his final piano sonata.

– Infodad.com

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Herbert Blomstedt's Beethoven cycle with the Staatskapelle Dresden is one of the great ones, as much for the magnificent playing of this finest of all German orchestras as for Blomstedt's effortlessly musical interpretations. The only possible weak link here might be the first movement of the Fifth, which lacks the sheer intensity that, say, Carlos Kleiber brings to it. On the other hand, Blomstedt's more emotionally balanced conception is so well realized that I'm inclined to give him credit for bringing off an unconventional interpretation, particularly as the remainder of the symphony lacks for nothing in excitement or sheer power.

Highlights of this cycle are many: a grand and glorious Eroica, a lithe and lyrical Second and Fourth, a pellucid Sixth with luminous wind playing, an exciting Ninth sporting fantastically buoyant strings in the Scherzo and a marvelously well sung finale, and a transcendentally great performance of the Seventh, with rip-roaring horns and perfect pacing throughout. The recordings, made in Dresden's Lucaskirche in the late 1970s and early '80s, put a silvery sheen around the players (winds especially) and strike an excellent balance between clarity and warmth. At the Brilliant Classics price, you can't afford not to own this set. [6/23/2002]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
reviewing this set previously released as Brilliant 99927

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Beethoven's nine symphonies -- composed between 1800 and 1824 -- are true cornerstones of the classical canon. Marking an irrefutable turning point in the history of music, they transformed audiences' expectations of the symphony and influenced the genre's future development through their experimental, dramatic and expressive weight. Conductors have long been drawn to the profundity of these works: a complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies is viewed as one of the ultimate challenges in the repertoire, and the performances in this set are undoubtedly among the greatest to have been recorded, illuminating the skill of the Staatskapelle Dresden and Herbert Blomstedt, one of the most distinguished conductors of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The symphonies trace Beethoven's development as a composer, from the earlier works that document his emergence from the Viennese tradition, through to his experimental and critically divisive late style. Particularly famed for its landmark status in the history of music is the 'Eroica' Symphony (No.3), notable for its innovative approach to sonata form and embodiment of Beethoven's 'heroic' style. Also included are the legendary Symphony No.5, known for its distinctive opening motif and rigorous large-scale structure, the dramatic 'Pastoral' Symphony, and the sophisticated Seventh Symphony. The collection is, of course, concluded by the monumental Symphony No.9 -- known as the 'Choral' Symphony because of its ground-breaking, transcendent finale, sung here by the Dresden State Opera Chorus and a group of acclaimed soloists.

Over 30 years after their initial release, these recordings have remained one of the ultimate Beethoven symphony cycles, a testament to the quality of the performances and Blomstedt's interpretations. Brought together in a set of excellent value, this 5-disc collection is a must-have addition to the libraries of classical music fans, old and new.

Other information:
- Recordings made in Lucaskirche, Dresden, 1975--1980