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Beethoven - Symphonies 1-9 (CD + Blu-ray)

£77.30

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Label: Berlin Philharmonic

Cat No: BPHR160091

Barcode: 4260306180912

Format: CD + Blu-ray

Number of Discs: 8

Release Date: 29th April 2016

Works

Beethoven, Ludwig van

Symphonies 1-9 (complete)

Artists

Annette Dasch (soprano)
Eva Vogel (mezzo-soprano)
Christian Elsner (tenor)
Dimitry Ivashchenko (bass)
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker

Conductor

Simon Rattle

Works

Beethoven, Ludwig van

Symphonies 1-9 (complete)

Artists

Annette Dasch (soprano)
Eva Vogel (mezzo-soprano)
Christian Elsner (tenor)
Dimitry Ivashchenko (bass)
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker

Conductor

Simon Rattle

About

Recordings of all the Beethoven symphonies with their chief conductor are always a milestone in the artistic work of the Berliner Philharmoniker. So it was with Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado, and expectations are correspondingly high for this cycle conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Where does the special status of these symphonies come from? Simon Rattle has an explanation: “One of the things Beethoven does is to give you a mirror into yourself – where you are now as a musician.” In fact, this music contains such a wealth of extreme emotions and brilliant compositional ideas that reveal the qualities of the orchestra and its conductor as if under a magnifying glass.

On his personal approach to the performances, Sir Simon said, “You can make Beethoven too sophisticated or too elegant, you can clean him up too much. You can try to make him agree with himself when often he’s fighting with himself. I have the feeling probably that the more plain-spoken this music is, the better it is. And one knows with this orchestra, when you say ‘will you joyfully motor this machine off the clifftop?’, everybody says ‘of course we will’.” The concerts in which the Berliner Philharmoniker and their chief presented the symphonies in the Philharmonie in October 2015 were as thrilling as this suggests. The virtuosity of the works was revealed as impressively as their revolutionary energy. Performances in Paris, Vienna and New York followed and were rewarded with standing ovations from audiences.

The exclusive hardvover edition contains the cycle on five CDs plus three Blu-ray discs as HD video, in uncompressed audio resolution and DTS surround sound. Its many extras include a video introduction with Sir Simon Rattle and a documentary about the making of recordings with many interviews and glimpses behind-the-scenes.

Pure Audio Blu-ray Disc
- All recordings in Pure Audio 24-bit / 96 kHz
- Running time: 344 mins
- 2.0 PCM Stereo · 5.1 DTS-HD MA

2 Video Blu-ray Disc
- Symphonies Nos. 1–9 in High Definition Video
- Running time: 397 mins

Bonus videos
- “Living with Beethoven” The nine symphonies with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle (45 mins)
- Sir Simon Rattle talks about Beethoven's Symphonies (49 mins)

Full HD 16:9 / PCM Stereo · 5.0 Surround DTS-HD, Region Code: ABC (worldwide)