Ku:nel – 9月 2020

Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Nine Symphonies' are the core repertoire of virtually every orchestra in the world and the Concertgebouworkest is no exception. Until the 1960s the Beethoven tradition of the Concertgebouworkest meant yearly symphony cycles that closed concert seasons. Later on Beethoven 'Symphonies' were mainly programmed one at a time, with a different (guest) conductor. This box set offers the finest recorded Concertgebouworkest live performances of the 'Nine Symphonies' since the 1970s. With a variety of conductors, from Leonard Bernstein to Nikolaus Harnoncourt it demonstrates the orchestra's incredible versatility.

An outstanding composer-pianist who rose to fame in Paris and London during the early nineteenth century, Friedrich Kalkbrenner is an artist whose music has unjustly fallen into oblivion, despite an abundant and varied corpus of works. The world premiere recording of his transcription of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony enables us to discover the inventiveness of his piano writing as well as the musical practices of his time.