Beethoven Symphony Cycles

[Dave2002]

A good Seventh - what was I on about - it is terrific long time since the first movement had me dancing round the kitchen.

This cycle remains absurdly cheap at £12 on Amazon

As I recall, the Beethoven 5 from Amsterdam cw Sibelius is terrific - beats the CBS/Sony though that's good too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh_YURRJjqw

Agree that for very slightly more than £12 the Szell set is good.

[gurnemanz]

Update to Konwitschny/Gewandhaus (discussed a few years ago above) Dave prompted me to get the box he linked to. Well worth getting and still available but now more or less out of print. There's a newer Berlin Classics edition (2017) claiming to have used original mastertapes. On special offer at jpc.

[cloughie]

I hope the excesses of the Beethoven year will bring with it two cycles which are overdue a return to the catalogues on cd ( for the first time?), RPO Dorati and HO Loughran.

[Dave2002]

This was pointed out to me on eclassical today - https://www.eclassical.com/labels/pe...s-nos-5-7.html

Andrew Manze is very good, and I heard him live in Beethoven a few weeks ago. I haven't heard these recorded performances. If Pentatone, I'm guessing there's a surround sound version. Not sure if the downloads can do surround sound, or if that's possible, whether the recordings would be affordable.

[HighlandDougie]

Update to Konwitschny/Gewandhaus (discussed a few years ago above) Dave prompted me to get the box he linked to. Well worth getting and still available but now more or less out of print. There's a newer Berlin Classics edition (2017) claiming to have used original mastertapes. On special offer at jpc.

Judging from the excellent sound for its age, the original tapes have been used for the remastering rather than using previously released masters. But - and it’s a big but on my part- it’s an interesting, well-played cycle which I in no way regret acquiring but, err, it’s just a bit ordinary. Or am I missing something?

[richardfinegold]

Judging from the excellent sound for its age, the original tapes have been used for the remastering rather than using previously released masters. But - and it’s a big but on my part- it’s an interesting, well-played cycle which I in no way regret acquiring but, err, it’s just a bit ordinary. Or am I missing something?

No, I agree, HD, I bought it at the same time, as an inexpensive FLAC download. Ordinary to the point of boring

[richardfinegold]

Just as the first-rate BPO/Cluytens set was overshadowed by BPO/Karajan in the 1960s, I now discover that the contemporary Hungarian SQ's account of the quartets in this set (overshadowed at that time by the Amadeus) is absolutely top-flight.

Both were marketed at mid-price and damned with faint praise.

Should we be having a parallel thread on LvB's quartets?

The Hungarian Quartet recordings were available here on a budget label in the seventies. The y remain my prefered cycle. Superb, old middle Europa type interpretations. I was able to order the CD versions from French EMI. These are so much superior to the Amadeus recordings

[johnb]

Judging from the excellent sound for its age, the original tapes have been used for the remastering rather than using previously released masters. But - and it’s a big but on my part- it’s an interesting, well-played cycle which I in no way regret acquiring but, err, it’s just a bit ordinary. Or am I missing something?

For my the pick of the Konwitschy Beethoven cycle is the gloriously enjoyable 7th - a performance that I keep returning to.

[cloughie]

Judging from the excellent sound for its age, the original tapes have been used for the remastering rather than using previously released masters. But - and it’s a big but on my part- it’s an interesting, well-played cycle which I in no way regret acquiring but, err, it’s just a bit ordinary. Or am I missing something?

I remember 2 and 7 as outstanding back in the Fontana (CFL), days - I think the DG Jochum set has stood the test of time better particularly 1 2 4 & 8.

[Petrushka]

I remember 2 and 7 as outstanding back in the Fontana (CFL), days - I think the DG Jochum set has stood the test of time better particularly 1 2 4 & 8.

My very first Beethoven was a Fontana double LP coupling of 6 & 9 which had an annoying break in the middle of the Peasant's Merrymaking, a break I still mentally register, 50 years on, whichever version I listen to, even a live performance! Well, strictly speaking, they were my brother's records but I appropriated them! Have the CD boxed set and still like the performances even though I now have many complete cycles of the Symphonies.

[Bryn]

For my the pick of the Konwitschy Beethoven cycle is the gloriously enjoyable 7th - a performance that I keep returning to.

If you listen to the CD releases of these recordings you will find that repeats, cut from the Fontana LP issues to fit the Vinyl format, have been restored.

[cloughie]

If you listen to the CD releases of these recordings you will find that repeats, cut from the Fontana LP issues to fit the Vinyl format, have been restored.

The Fontana LPs I refer to were mono CFL uncut originals not the later Fontana Stereo Specials which were cut to fill sides.

[Alison]

Hey Cloughie I never knew until recently that Sir Georg had recorded the Fourth Symphomy with the LPO.

[cloughie]

Hey Cloughie I never knew until recently that Sir Georg had recorded the Fourth Symphomy with the LPO.

Yes, an old Decca recording from 1950. Now on Eloquence. Talking of the LPO, this year could perhaps see reissue of Haitink’s LPO Beethoven Symphonies.

[bluestateprommer]

I have VPO cycles from Böhm, Bernstein and Rattle and the Gramophone review has also made me interested in the Nelsons. Have some Amazon vouchers to spend so keen to know if this is worth a go.

I've heard 1, 2 and 4 so far from the Andris Nelsons VPO set. To be honest, IMHO, none of them have really hit me as particularly distinguished or made me go "wow". These have sounded generally solid, middle-of-the-road, old-school-ish to me, a very few tempo nudges and stretches aside. Of course, that's just my own impression. I'll proceed through when time permits with the remaining 6, to give his whole cycle a fair chance.

This impression may chime a bit with this Gramophone interview with Nelsons, where he talks about working with the VPO thus:

"‘The Vienna Philharmonic is very much a concert orchestra in that they give something extra in concert if they feel comfortable. If you let them play, then they let you conduct!’"

Alternatively, the DG producer for this cycle, Everett Porter, comments in like spirit:

"‘If he had done the cycle with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, it would be a very different sound. Andris isn’t someone who comes in and says, “This is the bowing, this is the style, do it.” He feels what an orchestra has to offer, and then moulds it, but doesn’t try to transform it.’"