Beethoven Symphony Cycles

[gradus]

I haven't gone through all the replies so may have missed references to Klemperer and his Philharmonia recordings supported by his RFH concerts. To me he is a great Beethoven interpreter, along with Toscanini, Furtwangler and Walter. I dislike the slickness of HvK's DGG recordings but they are undeniably remarkable.
Of recent cycles that I have heard, I enjoy Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Nice to see Konwitschny's seventh still retains admirers after all these years.

[pastoralguy]

I haven't gone through all the replies so may have missed references to Klemperer and his Philharmonia recordings supported by his RFH concerts. .

Spoiler alert!

He didn't do well in this BaL!

[Petrushka]

... this year could perhaps see reissue of Haitink’s LPO Beethoven Symphonies.

It was issued as a Korean import two or three years ago and I got it from Presto and it wasn't cheap either!

Any other cycles that might be re-issued in this anniversary year? I'm staggered to find that I've somehow managed to acquire 28 complete cycles so perhaps don't need any more!

[Dave2002]

Any other cycles that might be re-issued in this anniversary year? I'm staggered to find that I've somehow managed to acquire 28 complete cycles so perhaps don't need any more!

I’ve just bought another couple of sets, but I don’t think that brings me up to 28 yet. Probably 10 or so. The BAL the other day didn’t help by suggesting that Adam Fischer’s set on Naxos would be worth having, and here we have also seen recommendations for a new set from Andris Nelsons. Ah well ....

[HighlandDougie]

For any non-Luddites on the forum who are not averse to downloads (rather than streaming or carbon-consuming CDs), the Fischer cycle is available from High Res Audio:

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/85gejt/danish-chamber-orchestra-dm-fischer-beethoven-complete-symphonies

Don't know the price in GBP but 17,50€ for a 24/96 download for all nine symphonies is a good buy. Easy download, too. Great sound quality, bracing performances, BaL recommended ... what more does one need.

[Bryn]

For any non-Luddites on the forum who are not averse to downloads (rather than streaming or carbon-consuming CDs), the Fischer cycle is available from High Res Audio:

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/85gejt/danish-chamber-orchestra-dm-fischer-beethoven-complete-symphonies

Don't know the price in GBP but 17,50€ for a 24/96 download for all nine symphonies is a good buy. Easy download, too. Great sound quality, bracing performances, BaL recommended ... what more does one need.

Clicking on your link (from within the UK) gives the price as £14.90, a rather better option than that on QOBUZ.

[HighlandDougie]

Clicking on your link (from within the UK) gives the price as £14.90, a rather better option than that on QOBUZ.

Almost as cheap as chips these days. I should have added that you get the booklet (as a PDF) and the cover art thrown in.

[Dave2002]

For any non-Luddites on the forum who are not averse to downloads (rather than streaming or carbon-consuming CDs), the Fischer cycle is available from High Res Audio:

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/albu...ete-symphonies.

It’s £21 currently from Presto in carbon-consuming CDs! That’s if one can get the order up to over £25 for the cheaper (free?) postage.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8619572--beethoven-complete-symphonies

In the meantime, are these really High Res? Whatever that means!

This page from the highresaudio site is interesting, though needs scrutiny - https://www.highresaudio.com/en/cont...alityguarantee

[Bryn]

Almost as cheap as chips these days. I should have added that you get the booklet (as a PDF) and the cover art thrown in.

I opted for a zip of the lot (5.6GB) despite their recommendation to restrict zips to a maximum of 2GB. It's scheduled to take around 1 hour to download, and that's with a nominally 108Mbps Internet connection.

[HighlandDougie]

In the meantime, are these really High Res? Whatever that means!

Yes - they are native 24/96 files as opposed to the 16/44 of the CDs. Not a huge difference in sound quality but, until my hearing starts to fail (like the rest of me), I can still tell the difference. Until iPhones decided that they would accept 24/96 music files, I had to convert native 24/96 downloads to 16/44 in order to listen to them on my-then phone. I was then able to do a straightforward blind A/B comparison between HiRes and CD quality versions of the same file. The former had more depth and space to the sound. In short, to my ears they simply sounded better. But JLW is, inter alii, the go-to person on the relative merits of different formats/bandwiths/DAC filters etc

[Barbirollians]

In this Beethoven year I have just finished listening through the Rome Abbado set . I found it extremely enjoyable . The only slight disappointment was the Ninth which I find was not from the Rome recordings but an earlier Berlin set that was otherwise replaced. I suspect coming after the stunning Kubelik Beethoven 9 on Orfeo did not help.

I thought that the Eroica and the Fourth were particular standouts but all of the others were excellent.

Embarrassing to see I have three unplayed sets of the symphonies to listen to still - Adam Fischer , Bernstein 1960s and Toscanini 1939 - I suspect they will be rather different experiences !

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For any non-Luddites on the forum who are not averse to downloads (rather than streaming or carbon-consuming CDs)...

There's no need to be rude.

But whilst not being averse to downloads, I prefer to have a CD that will not suddenly vanish. I speak from bitter experience. I had a Classic Apple iPod, with oodles of music backed up on a desktop computer and an external hard drive. The desktop computer died, but so did the external hard drive. As the iPod was quite old, I thought it would be wise to transfer the music to another device. In the attempt, I wiped the lot in seconds.

[mikealdren]

But whilst not being averse to downloads, I prefer to have a CD that will not suddenly vanish. I speak from bitter experience. I had a Classic Apple iPod, with oodles of music backed up on a desktop computer and an external hard drive. The desktop computer died, but so did the external hard drive. As the iPod was quite old, I thought it would be wise to transfer the music to another device. In the attempt, I wiped the lot in seconds.

As I have downloaded my CDs to computer, I'm now happy to add downloads as well however I share your concerns about the data as it was an enormous effort to get 3,400 CDs catalogued. I now keep several copies on different machines for safety but even then I had an data problem which I copied to the backups. Take care....

[Dave2002]

There's no need to be rude.

But whilst not being averse to downloads, I prefer to have a CD that will not suddenly vanish. I speak from bitter experience. I had a Classic Apple iPod, with oodles of music backed up on a desktop computer and an external hard drive. The desktop computer died, but so did the external hard drive. As the iPod was quite old, I thought it would be wise to transfer the music to another device. In the attempt, I wiped the lot in seconds.

Sad to hear about the loss of your music, but if they were downloads in some cases you would still have been able to dowload them all again. However that depends on a lot of factors, and in some cases even if the "original" source is still available, downloads are no longer possible. I agree that having the CDs is generally a lot safer, and there might even be some merits still in making CDs from downloads if that's the only way.

[Bryn]

. . . I agree that having the CDs is generally a lot safer, and there might even be some merits still in making CDs from downloads if that's the only way.

More compact to make lossless data compressed files (FLAC, Apple lossless or whatever) and burn to recordable DVDs or Blu-ray.