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I need your opinions on Beethoven (1 Viewer)

Peter Mazur

Second Unit
Joined
May 7, 2001
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436
I would like your opinions on what you consider to be the best versions of his 9 symphonies. I have these budget cd's and the performances and sound are not exactly the greatest. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

Jaehoon Heo

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 7, 2001
Messages
76
I don't have a good idea on complete symphonies. What budget CD's do you have? Let me just list the performance I thought good in both performance and sound quality:

1. Complete Symphonies : Karajan(DGG), Abbado(DGG)

If you are interested in Authentic Music -> Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music

2. No. 3 : Hogwood or Norrington(EMI)

3. No. 4 : Carlos Kleiber(Orfeo or Philips LD)

4. No. 5 : C. Kleiber/VPO(DGG)

5. No. 6 : B. Walter/Columbia SO(Sony), Isserstedt/VPO(Decca)

6. No. 7 : Solti/CSO(?)(Decca), Kleiber/VPO(DGG)

LD of C. Kleiber/ACO(Philips)

If you are interested in DVD-Audio, There is a complete symphony collection from Teldec by Daniel Barenboim, and another set will be released from Hodie, with 192kHz 24 bit stereo track. Performance is by Maximianno Cobra and some Hungarian orchestra.
 

Mark Lee

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 4, 1998
Messages
335
I have three versions of the 9th (ya know, Ode to Joy and all that....:)), which for many is considered one of, if not the greatest symphonies ever written. 'course, everyone nicks the choral finale for their commercials, movies, what have you, so that's not unfamiliar to most people nowadays, but the greatness of this symphony lies in the entirety of the work. I own recordings by Christoph von Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra on Telarc (an unjustly maligned recording IMO), Roger Norrington and the London Classical Players on Angel/EMI (great sonics, but a very different interpretation of the work -- not everyone's cup of tea), and my favorite, the aforementioned Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music on L'Oiseau Lyre. The two latter recordings are part of the "authentic instrument" movement; that is, all of the instruments used either truly date back to the 18th/early 19th century or are replicas of those (slightly different from modern) instruments.
If you're looking for complete-symphony sets, I can't tell you first-hand about them, though I also own several of the other symphonies in both their Cleveland Orchestra and Academy of Ancient Music versions -- each excellent in their respective ways.
Good luck! After you conquer this, why don't we talk Mahler? :D
 

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