Beethoven Eroica

Legendary conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler leads several of his signature orchestras with features from violinist Yehudi Menuhin in this sprawling programme of the great master composers!

Herbert von Karajan was the most renowned conductor to emerge from Europe in the post-World War II era – and through fortuitous timing throughout his career, and in spite of controversy that dogged his early years, he was the most recorded conductor of the 20th century, and is likely to remain one of the most visible (and biggest-selling) conductors well into the 21st century. Born in Salzburg and descended from a family of Greek origin with deep roots in Austria – including scholars and physicians in Vienna and Salzburg – he was a music prodigy, playing the piano at three and playing his first recital a year later.

Asahina Takashi (朝比奈 隆) was a Japanese conductor. He founded the Kansai Symphonic Orchestra (today the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra) in 1947 and remained its chief conductor until his death in Kobe. For some, Takashi Asahina was "the Karajan of Japan"; for others, his eminence was derived at least in part from his being the oldest conductor on the international scene; for others yet, he was quite simply an excellent musician, with a special sympathy for the classics of the Austro-German repertoire.

Maestro Marek Janowski and the WDR Symphony Orchestra present a new recording of Beethovens complete symphonies, the ultimate symphonic oeuvre in all thinkable respects. Bold as they still sound to modern ears, one easily imagines how Beethovens contemporaries were completely swept away by the scope, sheer force and adventurous nature of his symphonies. With this integral recording, Janowski and the orchestra finish a project that started with an acclaimed rendition of the 5th and 6th symphonies, released in 2019.

Les Siècles is a French philharmonic orchestra founded in 2003 by François-Xavier Roth, whose ambition is to put works from the 17th to today into perspective. The musicians of this orchestra play each repertoire on the appropriate historical instruments.

erbert von Karajan was the most renowned conductor to emerge from Europe in the post-World War II era – and through fortuitous timing throughout his career, and in spite of controversy that dogged his early years, he was the most recorded conductor of the 20th century, and is likely to remain one of the most visible (and biggest-selling) conductors well into the 21st century. Born in Salzburg and descended from a family of Greek origin with deep roots in Austria – including scholars and physicians in Vienna and Salzburg – he was a music prodigy, playing the piano at three and playing his first recital a year later.

Born in London of Italian-French parents, Sir John Barbirolli (1899–1970) trained as a cellist and played in theatre and café orchestras before joining the Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood in 1916. His conducting career began with the formation of his own orchestra in 1924, and between