Beethoven Beethoven 7

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.

Following his highly acclaimed Beethoven ‘Moonlight’, ‘Pathétique’ and ‘Waldstein’ Sonatas release, Hyperion’s Gramophone-award-winning artist Steven Osborne turns his talents to Beethoven’s complete Bagatelles. Though the composer himself referred to these thirty short piano works, which he penned throughout his life, as ‘trifles’, these are nonetheless trifles from the mind of a genius. In this polished album, Osborne lends his remarkable artistry to everything from the Six Bagatelles of Op 126, which at times occupy the same rarefied spiritual world as the late quartets and were the very last works Beethoven ever wrote for the piano, to the composer’s most famous stand-alone piano piece, the mysterious little A minor Bagatelle known to all the world as ‘Für Elise’.

Already established within Viennese culture by Haydn and Mozart, the trio genre was taken to new limits by the inexhaustible imagination of Beethoven's genius: "a serene joy come from an unknown world", was E. T. A. Hoffmann's reaction on hearing the Trio in D major Op.70 no.1. The Wanderers have ventured into the Beethoven piano trios and mastered every inch of its topography. What better guide could there be for us to follow with total confidence, in their 25th anniversary year?