Beethoven　symphonies

This DVD ends the series with symphonies Nos. 4 and 7, recorded live at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in February 2001. As a special feature, it offers the multi-angle “Conductor Camera” in the latter symphony which shows the maestro from the perspective of the musicians. And as a further bonus it also comprises the half-hour interview film “Abbado on Beethoven”. Each of the symphonies is a masterpiece in itself – they are all quite different, each representing the composer’s musical idiom at a particular stage in his development. The Symphony No. 4 was written in 1806 and – although musically strong – counts among the lesser played of Beethoven's symphonies. The Symphony No. 7 was premiered 1813 and is regarded to identify a new stage in Beethoven’s composing as classical elements intertwine with romantic ones.

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London on 24 November 2004 (Symphony No. 3) and 27 November 2004 (Symphony No. 5). This recording features former Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Kurt Masur, who conducted more than 150 performances in London and internationally during his tenure.

In February 2001 the Berliner Philharmoniker and Claudio Abbado were guests at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with all Beethoven symphonies. Their success was overwhelming with standing ovations after each performance. “Abbado, a Furtwängler admirer in principle, seems ever more Italian, his tauter lyricism allied to a sense of forward movement influenced, we are told, by period practice. The surprise is not the Mediterranean luminosity and scrupulous attention to instrumental detail - one expects nothing less from this source - but the animating sense of line. The Seventh Symphony… knows precisely where it's going and why… The sense of joy present throughout is overwhelming by the close.” - Gramophone Magazine.