Beethoven composed nine symphonies, each so striking individually that it is best not to attempt a general description. With them, and in them, he endows...

Beethoven composed nine symphonies, each so striking individually that it is best not to attempt a general description. With them, and in them, he endows orchestral music with new dimensions and qualities, and correspondingly new demands on the audience’s habitual ways of listening. There is reflection and sensation, a dominant constructive spirit, atmosphere and emotionality – all intertwined with a perspective that was radically new at the time.

Nagano clearly knows what he wants to achieve in this repertoire, and the best of his work will no doubt hold interest and fascination among Beethoven lovers.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)