Beethoven’s monumental contribution to Western classical music is celebrated here in this definitive collection marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Surveying the totality of his career and achievement, the Complete Edition spans orchestral, concerto, keyboard, chamber, music for the stage, choral and vocal works, encompassing his most familiar and iconic masterpieces, alongside rarities and recently reconstructed fragments and sketches in world premiere recordings. The roster of artists and ensembles includes some of Beethoven’s greatest contemporary exponents, in performances that have won critical acclaim worldwide.

90-disc box, featuring over 1,550 individual tracks, a detailed 136-page booklet and bonus of two free album downloads.

Accompanied by an authoritative and compelling note, the repertoire included spans Beethoven’s orchestral, concerto, keyboard, chamber, music for the stage, choral and vocal works. Encompassing his most familiar and iconic pieces as well as only recently discovered rarities, it is a truly thorough and exhaustive compendium of a complex genius.

The track list features a host of fragments, sketches, drafts, arrangements, transcriptions and reconstructions – some of which have never before been recorded – that reveal a very intimate, personal insight into the inner workings of Beethoven as a composer.

Musical director of the Unheard Beethoven project Willem Holsbergen was the key consultant on this boxed set. Together with producer Mark S. Zimmer, Holsbergen has tirelessly created an exhaustive archive of rarities, unheard works and forgotten pieces that have been left uncovered for centuries, and granted them a new lease of life through his own reconstructions and realisations.

Also includes the first recording of the narrated version of The Ruins of Athens.

Bonus: Free downloads – purchasers of the box may download two albums from Liszt’s transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies and songs. Coupon code with details included in the box.

Beethoven demands musicians bring their own dialogue to performances, and while the artists featured – ranging from experienced readers such as the Kodály Quartet, Takako Nishizaki and Boris Giltburg, to fresh interpreters – exceed these expectations in their renderings, with performances that have won critical esteem worldwide, all are bound by the fervour within his writing.

Contents:

CDs 1-8: Orchestral
Symphonies 1-9, Overtures, Wellington's Victory, German and Viennese Dances, Marches, Minuets

CDs 9-13: Concerto
Piano Concertos 1-5, Piano Concerto op.61a, Piano Concerto WoO4, Violin Concerto, Triple Concerto, Romances, Fragments

CDs 14-34: Keyboard
Piano Sonatas 1-32, Early Sonatas, Dances and Bagatelles, Piano Variations, Works for Piano Four Hands, The Creatures of Prometheus (version for piano), Wellington's Victory (version for piano), Fragments, Arrangements and Sketches

CDs 35-65: Chamber
Violin Sonatas, Cello Sonatas, Flute Sonatas and Serenades, Horn Sonata, String Trios, String Quartets, String Quintets, Piano Trios, Piano Quartets, Wind Quintets, Sextets, Septet, Octet, Preludes and Fugues, Canons, Dances and Marches, Duets, Trios and Quartets, National Airs and Variations, Fragments

CDs 66-72: Stage
Fidelio, Leonore, Egmont, King Stephen, The Creatures of Prometheus, The Ruins of Athens, The Consecration of the House, Leonore Prohaska, Germania

CDs 73-77: Choral
Missa solemnis, Mass in C major, Choral Fantasy, Christ on the Mount of Olives, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II, Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, The Glorious Moment, Opferlied, Abschiedsgesang, Cantata campestre, Gesang der Mönche, Der freie Mann, Bundeslied

CDs 78-90
Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English Songs, Folk Songs, Lieder, Concert Arias, Canons and Musical Jokes, Fragments and Alternative Versions