Beethoven 3 Symphony

The year 1812 was a busy year for the well-known but deaf composer Ludwig van Beethoven. At last, Beethoven got the chance to meet that other famous German, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but Goethe’s personality proved a disappointed to Beethoven. The composer was carrying on a hectic love life: in 1812 he wrote his famous letter to an anonymous ‘Unsterbliche Geliebte’ (‘Immortal Beloved’). Moreover, he was getting involved in the life of his younger brother, who was infatuated with a housekeeper. Yet despite his activities, Beethoven found the time to compose several new works, among which his Seventh Symphony.

If you take it for granted that Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was the greatest pianist of the twentieth century and that his performances of Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto were the greatest of the twentieth century, then you'll probably want to pick up this disc containing Michelangeli's fabled May 29, 1957, performance in Prague with Vaclav Smetacek and the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Although Smetacek is not the deepest, the greatest, or the most sympathetic accompanist Michelangeli ever had, and although the Prague players are not always quite on their best behavior, Michelangeli is as he always is in this work: absolutely definite.

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastorale"
Columbia Symphony Orchestra / Bruno Walter
SACD ISO Stereo: 1,63 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 760 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Sony Classical # SS 6012 | Country/Year: US 1999, 1958
Genre: Classical | Style: Classical Period

…The rating says five stars. I say: there are too many stars to count. Get this SACD, and listen to Beethoven the humanist who plumbed and characterized all those joys and struggles we have come to call the human condition.

Joe Hisaishi conducts Beethoven. Featuring Symphony No. 1 to 9 on five discs. Performed by the Future Orchestra Classics (Nagano Chamber Orchestra)