The 9 symphonies

"The playing of the Gewandhausorchester is indecently good: how refreshing to hear a full-size orchestra playing these pieces, the weight of sound thrilling in places. Blomstedt doesn't do anything radical; there's no straining for effect or tinkering with tempi or dynamics. He just plays what's written, brilliantly so".

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"Ugens album: Nye videnskabelige nodeudgaver har fået Blomstedt til at revurdere symfonierne - og det har fået ham til at sætte tempoet op ... Han foretrækker nu mindre vibrato og en slankere klang end på hans gamle indspilning. Og så er han gået over til den oprindelige orkesteropstilling, hvor første- og andenviolinerne sidder overfor hinanden, og ikke ved siden af hinanden ... Hvad der til gengæld ikke har ændret sig hos Blomstedt, er hans velkendte, prunkløse stil".

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"Vurdering: Ugens cd" - "West-Eastern Divan Orkestret er sammensat af jøder, palæstinensere og arabere fra hele Mellemøsten ... blev grundlagt i 1999 og har spillet Beethovens musik lige fra begyndelsen. Nu mestrer orkestret alle de ni symfonier på højt plan. Beviset er denne nye imponerende cd-boks ... Beethoven-boksen er mere spontan, mere dynamisk end hans tidligere indspilninger med andre orkestre".

"Recording of the week: Not only is it full of top-notch playing, but it also has plenty of interesting, if sometimes controversial, things to say ... Fischer manages to forge his own path and find his own take on these works. The Danish players throw themselves into every accent and crescendo with great gusto, and I'm confident that even if you know these symphonies extremely well and already have several recordings, you'll still find plenty here to enthral, delight, and beguile you".

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"Since these recordings were first issued there has been a veritable flood of Beethoven recordings. Yet I hope that the very limited comparisons I've made and my comments on all the readings indicate that even fifty-one years later these Karajan recordings occupy an important place in the catalogue. Hearing them for the first time as an integral cycle has been a fascinating and rewarding experience. I can understand why they were so highly regarded in 1963: they deserve no less in 2014".

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"Presto favourites - Recommended recording: Karajan recorded the Complete Symphonies of Beethoven no fewer than 4 times for DG, but this first 1963 recording was financially the most daring, artistically the most radical, and commercially the most successful ... I'm sure it's possible to fill several pages simply discussing the relative merits of Herbert von Karajan's various recordings of the complete symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, but in the end I've plumped for the set first released in 1963. There's an intensity to the Funeral March of the Eroica, a warmth to the Pastoral and a grandeur to the Ninth that amazes me every time, with none of the heaviness that arguably crept into some of his later accounts with the same orchestra ... Presentation is a unique deluxe package full of nostalgic touches and rare Karajan photos ... Exemplary in every respect".

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"Vurdering: Ugens album" - "Orkestret er begyndt at udgive albums på eget pladeselskab ... Produktioner udformet i stort bogformat. Beethoven-boksen indeholder fem cd'er med symfonierne og en bog om musikken, men også to dvd'er med koncertopførelser og et par dokumentarfilm. Samt som en særlig gave til lydnørder en bluray-disc ... og det er en ren opvisning af musikalsk mesterskab. Pletfrit, men personligt".

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"Vurdering: Recording of the month" - "Not one of the symphonies in this set is duff by any standard, and with a chunky booklet and excellent notes by Barry Cooper neither is this bargain box in any way low budget in presentation. History will tell us whether this cycle stands above those of other conductors and orchestras, but for now I'm placing my copy at the top of an already rather distinguished pile of references".

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"Dirigenten Mikhail Pletnevs nyfortolkning af Beethovens ni symfonier chokerer ved sine outrerede tempovalg, men selv i de mest hårrejsende passager brillerer Russian National Orchestra med suverænt spil ... Pletnevs fortolkning af de ni rusker op i vores Beethoven-billede - og det er ikke nogen enkel sag at vægte den mod andre legendariske sæt og enkelt-indspilninger. Dertil er den i for høj grad sin egen".

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"Denne Beethoven-cyklus kan med rette kaldes det 21.århundredes udspil. Men er De i gavehjørnet kan De nok se, at der må skelnes mellem de modtagere, som ønsker at betragte koncerterne og gerne fortsætte med at overvære Thielemanns og Kaisers drøftelser, og dem, der udbeder sig cd-sættets svimlende abstraktion. Vi vil nok anbefale de nyankomne at lade sig opsluge af Sonys gedigne sæt med symfonierne fordelt på 6 cd'er i kronologisk rækkefølge ... Som svangerskabsgave for sjælen er Beethovens 9 symfonier ikke blot gaven under juletræet, men under livstræet".

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"Adam Fischers Beethovenprojekt med Danmarks Underholdningsorkester er slet og ret banebrydende. Det vil begejstre, og det vil finde kritikere, men ingen efterlades uberørt. Fischer undviger vanetænkning, han læser alt forfra og kommer frem til en genskabelse af Beethovens symfonier, der taler til vor tid ... Mangfoldighed er nøgleordet i denne cyklus, en overrumplende mangfoldighed i klangdannelse, artikulation, dynamik, rytmisk og retorisk fantasi og ikke mindst tempobeherskelse ... Man må imponeres af det danske kammerorkester. Det bevæger sig aldrig trægt eller ufokuseret, reaktionerne på styrmandens tegn og gerninger kommer lynsnart og kontrolleret, der er vilje og gejst ... Beethovens symfonier. Danmarks Underholdningsorkester. Dirigeret af Adam Fischer. Sara Swietlicki (sopran), Morten Grove Frandsen (kontratenor), Ilker Arcayürek (tenor), Lars Møller (baryton). DR Koncertkoret. Naxos. Boks med 5 cd'er".

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"Den sygdomsramte Abbado må i sine koncertudfoldelser køre på halvt blus, men hans musiceren er dybere end nogensinde ... Abbado indspillede de ni som nyudnævnt chef for Berliner Philharmoniker i 1990 og opførte dem derpå samlet i Wien og i Rom ... Der er ingen afgørende ændringer i tolkningerne, men der er kommet en større intensitet frem med en stærkere fornemmelse for naturlige sammenhænge mellem de vekslende tempi. Berlinerne var i bedre form i Rom, orkesterklangen slankere inspireret af den fine og nære akustik i Santa Cecilia akademiet i Rom".

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"The first two symphonies in toto bristle with danger, wit and surprise. Why are these qualities signally lacking from the rest of the set? ... The set of hour-long documentaries for each symphony is a lot of pie and not many cherries ... To do nothing requieres 150 per cent concentration, remarks Thielemann and, sad to say, they do it very well".

"Brüggen's message, interpreted from uncorrupted texts, gets through, every repeat except one (in the third movement of the Seventh) observed ... Still when he meets Beethoven even halfway, the results are remarkable, as in the Second ... Brüggen strips (the Ninth) of the overbearing bombast encrusted across generations ... This is Brüggen's voyage to the vortex of Beethoven's last symphony. Go with him for a rare emotional encounter".

"Vurdering: IRR outstanding" - "Brüggen's is the perfect foil to Krivine - mellow, earthy and immensely satisfying".

"Att hans tolkningar har en lätthet och energi som man snarare förknippar med många yngre kollegor är förbluffande. Allra mest imponerar dock det faktum att han har något nytt att berätta i de här tolkningarna ... Trots raksa tempi låter det aldrig stressat eller ofokuserat, tvärtom! Det här är ungdomligt friska gestaltningar som självklart lyfts av en exceptionellt lyhörd och briljant ensemble ... Ett bevis för att Herbert Blomstedt bara blir bättre".

"That first cycle employed the Dresden Staatskapelle at its most soft-grained. Now ... he [Blomstedt] stands in charge of the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Always a tighter-grained ensemble ... Under Blomstedt, the musicians sound at ease yet always on their mettle ... What was gabbled and jittery ... now leaps and bounds and sings. If it's Beethoven the raging tyro you're after, look elsewhere".

"Riccardo Chailly's first recorded Beethoven cycle shows him to be a Classicist through and through ... Chailly's account of the First Symphony is a tour de force of wit and subversive joy, and the performance of the Second Symphony is almost as good. There is a fine account of the Fourth Symphony ... The Ninth gets a predictably swift reading, compact and powerful, which, like everything else in this cycle, is of a piece with itself".

"Beethovens 1. ... i Leipzig tilføres den livgivende og selvsikker energi ... Ophobningen af patos og indestængt smerte i Eroicas begravelsesmarch, kombineret med Leipzigernes sublime strygerklang, er af en anden verden ... Jeg vil bare slutte med at kalde udgivelsen for fabelagtig".

"How refreshing that Andris Nelsons comes to the Beethoven symphonies with no discernible interpretative axe to grind ... Yet neither does he steer down the middle of the road. Unpredictable might be a succinct description of Nelsons's interpretative approach ... In addition to his ability to create audible drama from the harmonic surprises and tensions in Beethoven's music, Nelsons also seems to have an innate sense of its ebb and flow ... I can't think of another cycle quite as volatile as this - not even Bernstein's. There's nothing in the least tentativ or routine here ... He's all in. The VPO follow him with ferocious dedication every step of the way".

"As this set of Beethoven symphonies shows, the orchestra is technically on the highest level. It meets all of Barenboim's demands ... These are the most old-fashioned performances of the works that I have listened to in a very long time ... They also highlight the problems that a conductor faces when he is such a passionate admirer of a previous interpreter that he can't escape their approach ... In short, despite serious shortcomings, this is a worthwhile and often moving set".

"What distinguishes Barenboim's set, however, is the courage of its iconoclastic convictions ... What I miss, beyond more tha a ghost of 18th-century values, is a sense of privacy ... On the set under review, this is less an issue of volume than of projection".

"I find these performances utterly fascinating, though it would be next to impossible to offer a comprehensive catalogue of the various colourful twists and turns that characterise Fischer's performances (there are far too many of them)".

"Vurdering: Diapason d'or".

"The first two symphonies are an unstrammed delight ... as is the performance of the Fourth Symphony ... The conduction-cam option is one of the fascinations of the Abbado DVDs ... this latest Berlin cycle is a decidely distinguished affair".

"Vurdering: Gramophone choice - Vurdering: Recording of the month" - "This is an exceptional realisation of Beethoven's nine symphonies, one of those rare occasions when one is left with a feeling of having been in the presence of the thing itself. The key to the cycle's success is the quality of the musicianship ... The dramatic and expressive elements are derived from within".

"In these vibrant Rome performances he achieves an intensity of effect his hero Furtwängler just might have approved".

"Claudio Abbado er fyldt 75, og det bliver fejret med maner ... De ni symfonier ... bedre kan det næppe gøres. Abbado bruger de nye urtekst-udgaver af partiturerne, så alt er yderst nodetro, men ikke irreterende historiserende. Det er bare Abbado, og det vil sige, at vi befinder os på et højt kunstnerisk plan hos en dirigent, der har hjertet med".