Your desert island disc Beethoven symphony recordings.

[Barbirollians]

If you could only take one recording of each of the symphonies to a desert island which would it be ?

You are not confined to a boxed set . Individual performances are allowed .

I have come down to the following

1 & 2 - the last Wand recording
3 VPO/Kleiber
4 BPO/Karajan ( 1960s)
5 LSO/Jochum
6 LPO/Boult ( Medici Masters)
7 VPO/Carlos Kleiber
8 BPO/Karajan 1962
9 Philharmonia/Furtwangler

Very hard - no room for Bohm's Pastoral or any Cluytens or Klemperer.

[barber olly]

1 BavRSO Jochum
2 BPO Jochum
3 PO Klemperer (1955)
4 BPO Jochum
5 RPO Dorati
6 BPO Cluytens (1956)
7 LGO Konwitschny
8 BPO Jochum
9 CSO Solti

[makropulos]

If you could only take one recording of each of the symphonies to a desert island which would it be ?

You are not confined to a boxed set . Individual performances are allowed .

I have come down to the following

1 & 2 - the last Wand recording
3 VPO/Kleiber
4 BPO/Karajan ( 1960s)
5 LSO/Jochum
6 LPO/Boult ( Medici Masters)
7 VPO/Carlos Kleiber
8 BPO/Karajan 1962
9 Philharmonia/Furtwangler

Very hard - no room for Bohm's Pastoral or any Cluytens or Klemperer.

As you say, this is very hard.

A, For a single box set, I would choose the Mackerras series on Hyperion with SCO and Philharmonia (in No. 9).

or

B. individual performances and - for sanity's sake - limiting things by excluding mono recordings:
1 and 2: Mackerras/SCO
3: Bernstein/VPO
4. Haitink/LSO live
5. Carlos Kleiber/VPO
6. Böhm/VPO
7. Mackerras/RLPO
8. Krivine/Chambre Philharmonique (period instruments)
9. Well-nigh impossible to choose...maybe Fricsay (DG)

Then again, no Erich Kleiber, Jochum, Monteux, Mengelberg, Furtwängler, Walter, Boult... oh dear.

[Colonel Danby]

Roger Norrington in the lot, with Simon Rattle as a runner up with the VPO.

I know that a lot of people don't care for Roger's controversial tempi and lack of vibrato (cf his recording of the Mahler Symphonies) but his work is always exciting and it does for me. And I simply adore the period instruments of the London Classical Players...

[Auferstehen2]

1. Bernstein
2. Bernstein
3. Toscanini
4. Haitink
5. Kleiber
6. Böhm
7. Kleiber
8. Norrington
9. Karajan

Mario

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh dear. This is quite impossible, but I'll have a stab at it.

1. VPO, Schmitt-Isserstedt
2. VPO, Schmitt-Isserstedt
3. VPO, Kleiber
4. Philharmonia, Klemperer
5. Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Walter
6. VPO, Abbado
7. BPO, Karajan (the last version)
8. yet to decide
9. SRO Ansermet

[Alison]

1. SCO/Mackerras
2. VPO/Bernstein
3. BPO/Abbado
4. LSO/Haitink
5. LSO/Haitink
6. LPO/Boult
7. Halle/Loughran
8. LSO/Haitink
9. LPO/Tennstedt Proms 1991

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh No! Not another "List"!!

Well, it's nearly the weekend (the time traditionally set aside for S&M activities) so, following the Desert Island Discs idea of chosing recordings that have a special/sentimental meaning for me, I'd take Karajan's 1960s complete cycle - it's been with me for years, and despite its irritating flaws (the lack of Expo repeats foremost among these) I think it's still the best single survey of these great, great works.

Best Wishes.

[Bryn]

Fine, but which of the sets he has committed to disc, or indeed to video tape for Beeb television? Despite what he admits was a misreading in the LCP disc of the 9th, that remains my favourite of the work. However, I think Immerseel would take pride of place for me in most of the others.

[Thomas Roth]

Funny, as I a few days ago wrote an article about my favorite Beethoven boxes. I have three desert island choices:
Haitink - LSO Live
Szell - Sony
Karajan 1977 - DG
But the new Chaillly quickly became no 4. A sensational set!

[Biffo]

1. Marriner/ASMF
2. Beecham/RPO
3. Kleiber, E/VPO
4. Walter/Columbia
5. Kleiber, C/VPO
6. Bohm/VPO
7. Monteux/LSO
8. Jochum/Concertgebouw
9. Karajan/BPO (1963)

Then again, mighy just opt to take the Mackerras/RLPO set.

[Petrushka]

9. LPO/Tennstedt Proms 1991

I wasn't aware this was on CD, Alison. I was at that 1991 Prom (as I was the 1985 LPO/Tennstedt on BBC Legends). Is it one from the Alison Archives? Certainly worth a CD issue as I think it was better than either if those issued.

[Petrushka]

Yes, this is well-nigh impossible. Nevertheless...

1. BPO/Karajan (1963)
2. BPO/Karajan (1963)
3. VPO/Furtwangler (1944) or BPO/Abbado (the Rome set) as a modern alternative.
4. BPO/Karajan (1963)
5. BPO/Abbado (the Rome set)
6. VPO/Bohm
7. VPO/C. Kleiber
8. VPO/Abbado
9. Philharmonia/Klemperer (live 1957)

I'm a big fan of the LSO/Haitink, BPO/Clutyens and Leipzig Gewandhaus/Konwitschny sets so any of them could have gone into the above. And Chailly is on my wish list...

[agingjb]

I'd take advice about most of the symphonies, but I have an affection for my battered and probably unplayable LP of the 5th by Kleiber (Erich, by the way).

And I've just discovered a 7th by the same conductor in my virtual attic.

[jayne lee wilson]

Oh god, no - Bruckner was hard enough!

Complete cycles - Norrington live 2002 SWR (AMAZING 9th!) and Szell/Cleveland (scarcely a weak spot anywhere, save for paucity of repeats).

Individually...

1 - Scherchen VSOO
2- Scherchen RPO
3 - Bruggen O.of the 18th C. - or Scherchen VSOO 1958 stereo
4 - Zinman/Zurich TO
5 - Harnoncourt/COE (wish more conductors would. include trio repeat)
6 - Zender/Saarbrucken RSO
7 - Bruggen/O.18thC
8 - Scherchen/RPO (!!!)
9 - Just has to be Norrington/SWR again!