Beethoven began composing his Second Symphony around late 1800, after a successful performance of his First Symphony at a benefit concert in April that year. The hope seems to have been to perform it at a similar concert the following spring - the week before Easter was just about the only time of year when such concerts could be staged in Vienna at that time, since the orchestras were engaged mainly in operas during the rest of the season. After sketching the first movement in considerable detail, however, plans for the rest of the work were suddenly put on hold when he was commissioned to write a ballet, Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus. This was duly performed in March 1801, and Beethoven finally returned to complete the symphony the following winter, in readiness for the next opportunity for a benefit concert. When the time came in April 1802, however, Beethoven was disgusted to find that he had not been given one of the few available slots in the calendar, and that the date had instead been allocated to what he called 'thoroughly mediocre artists'. Nevertheless, this misfortune may have enabled him to make further refinements to the music before it was first performed. Certainly he did make substantial alterations to the finale at a late stage, in particular by greatly enlarging the coda. Osmo Vänskä became the Minnesota Orchestra's tenth music director in September 2003. Praised for his intense and dynamic performances, Vänskä is recognized for compelling interpretations of the standard, contemporary and Nordic repertoires, as well as the close rapport he establishes with the musicians he leads. He began his musical career as a clarinettist, occupying the co-principal's chair in the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for several years. After studying conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, he won first prize in the 1982 Besançon International Young Conductor's Competition. His conducting career has featured substantial commitments to such orchestras as the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Iceland Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His numerous recordings for BIS continue to attract the highest acclaim; his Beethoven symphony cycle with the Minnesota Orchestra - including a Grammy-nominated recording of Symphony No.9 - has broadcast the exceptional dynamism of this musical partnership to audiences worldwide. Meanwhile Vänskä is heavily in demand internationally as a guest conductor with the world's leading orchestras, enjoying regular relationships with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Washington. In May 2008, after two decades at the helm of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Vänskä was named that ensemble's conductor laureate. Among the many honours and distinctions he has been awarded are the Pro Finlandia medal, a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, Musical America's 2005 Conductor of the Year Award, the Sibelius Medal in 2005 and the Finlandia Foundation Arts and Letters Award in 2006.

In 2010 Yevgeny Sudbin released the first instalment in a cycle of Beethoven's piano concertos. Featuring the Fourth and the Fifth concerto the disc received top marks on web sites such as ClassicsToday.com and klassik-heute.de and was selected CD of the Week in Daily Telegraph and Editor's Choice in Gramophone, whose reviewer wrote 'The mother-of-pearl sheen of [Sudbin's] pianism is backed by a special underlying sensitivity...Delectably light-fingered brilliance and virtuosity shines a new light on some of the most familiar scores in the repertoire...' Other reviewers agreed that there was something very special about these interpretations ('Extraordinarily vibrant and unforced', Piano News) and, not least, about Sudbin's partnership with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra ('There is a true give-and-take between soloist and orchestra throughout these performances that makes them especially engaging', Listen Magazine). The web site Classical CD Review found Sudbin and Vänskä to be 'ideally matched Beethoven interpreters,' and the French reviewer in Classica agreed, detecting a 'Mozartian flame' in the performances. For this sequel Sudbin and Vänskä go one step further and actually include a Mozart concerto to precede Beethoven's Concerto No.3 in C minor. Also in C minor, Mozart's Concerto No.24, K 491, is often regarded as having been the inspiration for Beethoven's work. The mood of K 491 is dramatic, even Romantic - the concerto was memorably described by the Mozart expert Alfred Einstein as an 'explosion of passion, of dark tragic emotions' - reflecting its proximity to The Marriage of Figaro, which was composed at the same time. Among Mozart's concertos it is one of the most ample, both in terms of scoring and duration, and thus provides an ideal counterweight to Beethoven's Third, which the composer began to sketch in 1796, but only completed eight years later.

Learn more about this recording on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

Much has been written about Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, formerly Leonore. Beethoven worked on it on and off for almost a decade. During that time the four different overtures included on this recording were composed. They are substantially different, not only in length but also in themes, while the Fidelio overture is composed in a different key and uses no material from the opera itself. The Ruins of Athens is a set of incidental music pieces composed for the opening of the Deutsches Theater in today’s Budapest. Even though only the Turkish March is often heard today, many listeners may be familiar rather with Liszt’s fantasia for piano and orchestra on themes of this score.

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski began to play the piano and the violin at the age of four, composed his first symphonic work at seven, gave his first public piano recital when he was eleven and went on to become one of the best known conductors in the world. He conducted several Polish orchestras before emigrating to the US where he was chief conductor of many leading orchestras. On the present recording he leads the GRAMMY Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra. The recordings of American orchestras produced for VOX by the legendary Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be among the very finest sounding orchestral recordings ever made.

Past praise of the recordings included on this remastered CD release:

‘The sound is by and large excellent, the beautiful clarity and simplicity of the sonics show modern American analog recordings at its best, just as the performances show the non-slick, musical/expressive side of music making in this country at its lively best.

-- Stereo Review, (11/1981)

It’s not all that uncommon to collect all of Beethoven’s dramatic incidental music and overtures in one set, but it’s quite possible that it’s never been done as well as this before.

-- Buffalo Evening News, (06/1981)

The overall sonic qualities of this venture are extraordinary.

-- Los Angeles Times, )04/1981)

The recorded sound is amazing. The performances are nothing short of a revelation. This record shows that the Minnesota Orchestra is one of the finest on the continent.

-- FM Guide Toronto, (04/1981)

The piano concerto was the category in which Mozart most consistently excelled, in which he most successfully combined elements of virtuosity and depth, of chamber music and symphonic style, of regard for his public and for personal expression. No. 17 is one of six piano concertos he composed in 1784, two of them, including this one, for one of the most talented of his own pupils, Barbara Ployer. Scored for the same instrumentation as No. 17, No. 27 was his last piano concerto. It stands alone, because its content and character make it unique and it is deeply personal, having a feeling of subdued gravity. Pianist Walter Klien studied with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Paul Hindemith and performed with the world’s top orchestras. The present recording was realized in 1978 by the famous production team of Joanna Nickrenz and Marc Aubort from the appropriately named "Elite Recordings". Many of their projects have achieved collector status, especially those with American orchestras.

REVIEW:

Collectors of a certain age may remember this attractive pairing of Mozart’s 17th and 27th piano concertos through its original LP release on Vox’s subsidiary label Candide. It also turned up on CD as part of Vox’s long gone budget Prima series. Newly remastered for Vox’s new Audiophile Series, this 1978 Elite Recordings production supervised by Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz retains its vivid impact and vibrant detail.

Notice the orchestral ritornellos’ ebb and flow under Stanisław Skrowaczewski’s leadership, and how the forward woodwinds and singing strings conversationally interact. Even in loud tuttis one can take dictation from each orchestral strand. Pianist Walter Klien’s Mozart playing is a model of clarity, projection, poise, and proportion, and he never puts an unbalanced or uneven phrase forward. He’s also one of the few pianists on disc who doesn’t approach Mozart’s final concerto with kid gloves, meaning that his slow movement is full-bodied and fluent rather than ethereal and wispy, and that he doesn’t underplay the finale’s scampering thrust. Sometimes Klien’s phrasing falls into square and tinkly assembly line patterns.

You won’t find the witty inflections and dabs of color that you hear from Peter Serkin or Maria-João Pires in K. 453’s wonderful theme and variations finale. Nor does Klien’s clean yet regimented articulation in K. 595’s first-movement development section match Richard Goode’s harmonic subtlety and feeling for chamber-like repartée. Still, these interpretations won’t steer you wrong. And while I have the floor, we need a truly complete boxed set edition of Skrowaczewski’s Vox recordings!

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski’s legendary association with the Minnesota Orchestra yielded many classic recordings – and this selection of orchestral works by Ravel is one of them. Recorded in 1974 these Vox recordings have been newly remastered from the original tapes.

REVIEW:

A Polish conductor and an American orchestra play Ravel as if they were French. The Vox recordings from 1974 have been remastered from the original tapes and sound absolutely magnificent in their new freshness as far as the sound image and transparency are concerned.

Skrowaczewski begins with an elegant and finely differentiated, incredibly colorful version of the Valses Nobles et sentimentales. He gives the ballet Ma mère l’oye a wonderfully magical, sensual and suggestive character. Drama, crackling tension, subtle excitement and lyricism mingle in a dreamlike interpretation.

The two Daphnis et Chloé suites are no less outstanding and evocative. Here, too, the Minnesota Orchestra plays at the highest level of interpretation and technique, committed and, in the finale, ecstatic, following the highly inspired conductor. The St. Olaf Choir also deserves praise.

-- Pizzicato

No collection of the composer's orchestral works would be complete without the overtures and theater music. The Minnesota Orchestra and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski's acclaimed VoxBox set of the overtures and incidental music makes a welcome return to the catalogue. Produced by the legendary Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz, and newly remastered from the original analogue tapes in high-definition.

REVIEW:

This set is an absolute joy. In athletic and muscular playing, the orchestra appear to strain at the leash, ready to explode with exuberance. Phyllis Bryn-Julson and the Minnesota Bach Society are an excellent match in the vocal numbers, and the recording is as vivid and rich as the performers.

-- BBC Music Magazine