Beethoven Hi Rez Piana Sonatas and Symphonies? (1 Viewer)

[John*K]

I would like to buy hi rez versions of Beethoven's complete sonatas and his symphonies. Can anyone make a recommendation? I like the music, but don't know which perfomances I should be looking to. I would like multichannel if possible, preferably SACD. Box sets of regular CDs are okay, too. Thank you.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

IIRC the only set of the symphonies on DVD-A is the Barenboim. I've heard a couple of his B interpretations and consider him quite pedestrian.

So the rest of the high res B symphonies are all on SACD.

The SACD Herbey (von Karajan) set on DDG is pretty good...it's his 1964 cycle and by many standards is the best of his endlessly-recorded B cycles.

There are separate SACD recordings of many of the B symphonies, including the Szell 3rd, the Walter 6th, and the Carlos Kleiber 5th and 7th. All of these are marvelous.

You aren't going to get multichannel.

 

[Stan Rozenfeld]

Abbado and Berlin Philarmonic versions of all nine symphonies have been released on dvd-audio. Supposedly Abbado is one of today's great conductors, although I am no expert, not by a long shot.

There was a very positive and very thorough review of Abbado's rendition of 7th and 8th symphony on high fidelity review site:

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/re...umber=15248308

I recently bought the 5th and 6th symphony by Abbado during the latest deep discount dvd sale, just to try it out, before I buy other sypmphonies. I haven't had a chance to listen to it though.

 

[Seth--L]

With the Symphonies, you'd be better off buying individual releases; the complete cycles are mostly iffy.

As for the sonatas, not much is out there. Ronald Brautigam has begun recording all of them on SACD, but he's only on disc 2 of what will be a 17 disc set. Disc 1 was excellent; disc 2 will be out next month.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

The Beethoven symphonies are also on Pentatone and they are very good.