Your desert island disc Beethoven symphony recordings.

[amateur51]

Just for the sake of all the coughing & spluttering that'll ensue, I'll opt for the Pletnev set

[Petrushka]

5 - Harnoncourt/COE(wish more conductors would include trio repeat)

So do I - so much more satisfying. Abbado does so in his second set with the BPO recorded in Rome.

(A confession: in 40 years of concert-going I've heard Beethoven 5 just once. Halle/Loughran 1976).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

So do I - so much more satisfying. Abbado does so in his second set with the BPO recorded in Rome.

(A confession: in 40 years of concert-going I've heard Beethoven 5 just once. Halle/Loughran 1976).

I too have only heard Beethoven 5 once in a concert. That was Halle/Barbirolli in the Queen's Hall, Belle Vue in 1961 or 1962. David Oistrakh played Beethoven's Violin Concerto in the first. That's the kind of concert you never forget.

[Parry1912]

5 - Harnoncourt/COE (wish more conductors would. include trio repeat)

I thought Jonathan Del Mar/Barenreiter had debunked this for good.

[jayne lee wilson]

What d'you mean, P1912? What did those noble scholars say? And should we, and all conductors, believe them?

I thought Jonathan Del Mar/Barenreiter had debunked this for good.

[Dave2002]

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

Are the Schmidt-Isserstedt versions of 1 and 2 available? I see there was a complete cycle - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Sy...9255236&sr=1-9 but only a few are currently available as CDs. I've spotted 1,3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 as used CDs on Amazon marketplace, while 9 which is an extremely good performance does seem still to be available new. It is possible that the complete set is available in Japanese pressings released around 2008, but as I can't read Japanese I'm not sure - e.g.http://ahhfwmy.blogspot.com/2011/04/...ohschmidt.html - which has the elusive number 2!

I haven't even got round to deciding for number 9 yet - let alone the rest. For 9 my short list would be Karajan (any, but I think one of the analogue ones is the best), Schmidt-Isserstedt and Ansermet. If pushed I'd probably eliminate Ansermet, and if pushed really hard I'd go for Karajan (and incidentally I'm not a great Karajan fan - but his 9th his superb) - though I might flip on alternate days ...... but ..... a oh ..... What about Furtwängler?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Are the Schmidt-Isserstedt versions of 1 and 2 available?

It would appear not. I have them in a Decca budget box of all the symphonies and violin & piano concertos. I remember just how highly rated this symphony cycle was at the the time of its release.

[Tony Halstead]

All the symphonies:
1st choice: George Szell / Cleveland Orchestra.
2nd choice: Sir Roger Norrington, London Classical Players.

[Alison]

I can hardly wait for the Chailly set to appear and am determined not to ready any reviews prior to
listening myself.

Many of us Im sure found that we didnt have a readily identifiable favourite for one or two of the
symphonies and I really hope Chailly can fit the bill.

In particular I stilll await that elusive superlative version of the Seventh. I will revisit RLPO/Mackerras though
as I seem to share a couple of Makropulos' other choices.

[Petrushka]

I can hardly wait for the Chailly set to appear.

Same here. Don't have to wait too long now. The 1st and 7th are live in R3 this coming Wednesday and I am attending their 9th on Nov 3.

For a superlative 7th I take it that you don't share the general acclaim for the Carlos Kleiber/VPO so I'd suggest the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Franz Konwitschny. It's only available as part of the complete set but it's cheap enough and most of the performances are pretty good. A set well worth comparing with the Chailly with the same orchestra.

[Bryn]

I do wish EMI would reissue the old Colin Davis RPO recording of the 7th, and not just for nostalgic reasons.

[visualnickmos]

Bonsoir, Eine Alpen...

That Schmidt-Isserstedt Decca set is amazing - not only the symphonies, but the concertos as well! I'm sure Decca had no idea what a winner they were on to, with that release!
As for deciding on a DID perfect 8 - well I won't even try to satisfy such an impossible notion. Suffice to say, I am actually quite disappointed with the Furtwangler 9, which I acquired when it came out on EMI's GROCs series. It leaves me rather flat, to be honest. I would go for Mackerras in the 9th. Solti's CSO 7th is pretty damned explosive, and Cluytens BPO - well, all of these are sure-fire winners.

[amateur51]

I do wish EMI would reissue the old Colin Davis RPO recording of the 7th, and not just for nostalgic reasons.

Me too, Bryn - it's a cracker

[Roehre]

For a superlative 7th I take it that you don't share the general acclaim for the Carlos Kleiber/VPO so I'd suggest the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Franz Konwitschny. It's only available as part of the complete set but it's cheap enough and most of the performances are pretty good. A set well worth comparing with the Chailly with the same orchestra.

Although less well recorded we have to keep a couple of things in mind re this B7 especially (and the Konwitschny cycle in general):
- it was one of the first stereophonic complete Beethoven-sets ever;
- it was recorded by the Eastern German Eterna /VEB Deutsche Schallplatten team in colloboration with the Philips team, and the stereo recording was intended to show the technical superiority of the "Socialist" system in the German peasant's and labourer's state over the Capitalist Federal Republic (as the Philips team's leaders were westgermans);
- because of the pressure of all this Konwitschny was (to put it mildly) not always sober during the sessions, some of them made with armed Soviet soldiers present.

I have much respect for these recordings, and especially the striking seventh especially

[gurnemanz]

Although less well recorded we have to keep a couple of things in mind re this B7 especially (and the Konwitschny cycle in general):
- it was one of the first stereophonic complete Beethoven-sets ever;
- it was recorded by the Eastern German Eterna /VEB Deutsche Schallplatten team in colloboration with the Philips team, and the stereo recording was intended to show the technical superiority of the "Socialist" system in the German peasant's and labourer's state over the Capitalist Federal Republic (as the Philips team's leaders were westgermans);
- because of the pressure of all this Konwitschny was (to put it mildly) not always sober during the sessions, some of them made with armed Soviet soldiers present.

I have much respect for these recordings, and especially the striking seventh especially

When I was in Leipzig in the early seventies (teaching English, not under cover) the story was going round that Konwitschny's widow still had a good income taking back his empty bottles to claim the deposit. There was great fondness for him still in evidence, all the more because they were not so keen on Masur and the popular Vaclav Neumann had walked out in 1968 over the Prague invasion.

I have a number of old Eterna LPs of his Beethoven cycle which I haven't listened to for ages. I might be tempted to investigate the CDs.