Beethoven Eroica

A florilegium of Beethoven symphonies conducted by one of the masters of the baton, with the Berliner Philharmoniker for the Fifth (recorded in 1937) and the Wiener Philharmoniker for the "Eroica" and "Pastoral" (performed in the 1950s).

Despite making his name as an interpreter of Wagner and Bruckner, Furtwängler’s first and last love was Beethoven.

Beethoven‘s symphonies pose without any doubt one of the greatest artistic challenges to every conductor. Of the countless questions about what an authentic interpretation means, I am addressing only one here, namely the problem of Beethoven’s metronome markings. As we know, the first metronomes were built in Vienna during Beethoven’s lifetime and he did then give metronome markings to his pieces (retrospectively in most cases).

Beethoven‘s symphonies pose without any doubt one of the greatest artistic challenges to every conductor. Of the countless questions about what an authentic interpretation means, I am addressing only one here, namely the problem of Beethoven’s metronome markings. As we know, the first metronomes were built in Vienna during Beethoven’s lifetime and he did then give metronome markings to his pieces (retrospectively in most cases).

With many of the Beethoven 250 anniversary events sadly cancelled, the great man’s genius can still be celebrated thanks to the many new recordings of his works appearing during 2020.

Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Nine Symphonies' are the core repertoire of virtually every orchestra in the world and the Concertgebouworkest is no exception.

On the eve of his centenary in 2018, Sony Classical releases the most important collection, Leonard Bernstein’s classic American Columbia recordings, remastered from their original 2- and multi-track analogue tapes. This has allowed for the creation of a natural balance (for example, between the orchestra and solo instruments) that brings the quality of these half-century-old recordings, excellent for their time, up to the standards of today’s audiophiles. In addition, there has been a meticulous restoration of some earlier masterings in which LP surface noise was too rigorously eliminated at the expense of the original brilliance.

For the first time in their history, the Wiener Symphoniker will release a complete Beethoven symphonies cycle on CD. This shortcoming is about to be remedied: starting in autumn 2017, the Wiener Symphoniker will release the full cycle on 5 CDs. With a new CD of the series to be released every 6 months, the full cycle will be completed just in time for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven in 2020. The symphonies were recorded live during a critically acclaimed concert cycle in Spring/Summer 2017 in the Great Hall of the Musikverein Wien.