Beethoven Krystian Zimerman

In its 2012/13 season, the Hagen Quartett brings the complete Beethoven string quartets to the most prominent musical centres of the world, including New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, Vienna and Salzburg. During the first half of this tour, the quartet went right away from the stage to the studio to record three of their most favourite Beethoven quartets. With Op. 18/3 and Op. 135, the album ranges from the very first to the last string quartet Ludwig van Beethoven wrote.
The Hagen Quartet came into being in 1981, soon achieving success in a number of competitions and signing an exclusive recording contract with DG, which over the course of a 20-year relationship produced 45 CDs.

Since winning the Silver Medal and the Krystian Zimerman Sonata award at the 2015 Chopin Piano Competition, Montreal and Quebec at large have been gaga – for good reason – over Charles Richard-Hamelin. Recorded live in concert this past May at Salle Raoul-Jobin of the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, this album may begin conservatively with Beethoven’s Two Rondos for Piano, Op. 51, but takes a turn with George Enescu’s Second Suite, Op. 10. With the Enescu, Richard-Hamelin digresses from clinical Classicism into the Romanian composer’s grandiose late-Romantic chromaticism. Even in a live recording, Richard-Hamelin shows not only acute elegance and poise, but extreme precision and a heightened emotional sensibility.

Editorial Reviews
The New York Times
"Conducted with intense dedication and soaring spirits by Mr. Bernstein, these recordings are superb, both visually and aurally."

From the Director
Leonard Bernstein says about these recordings from the late 70s and 80s, all directed by Humphrey Burton, that there is "no single body of work in the universe of orchestral music that is in any way comparable to this one."
"I offer [this cycle] to all music-loving ears as a testament of faith and of my most profound reactions to this greatest of all composers."–Leonard Bernstein

In remembrance of his 90th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon releases a magnificent 7-DVD box set with Leonard Bernstein conducting and talking about the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. From splendid places in Vienna and Amsterdam, Leonard Bernstein conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. This ambitious and accomplished box includes all of Ludwig van Beethoven's nine symphonies, the piano concertos with Krystian Zimerman, the monumental Missa solemnis and overtures together with the string quartet op. 131, excerpts from The Creatures of Prometheus and the choral fantasy op. 80.