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Beethoven - Symphonies No.2 & No.7

£12.69

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Label: BIS

Cat No: BISSACD1816

Barcode: 7318599918167

Format: Hybrid SACD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 29th September 2008

Works

Beethoven, Ludwig van

Symphony no.2 in D major, op.36
Symphony no.7 in A major, op.92

Artists

Minnesota Orchestra

Conductor

Osmo Vanska

Works

Beethoven, Ludwig van

Symphony no.2 in D major, op.36
Symphony no.7 in A major, op.92

Artists

Minnesota Orchestra

Conductor

Osmo Vanska

About

Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos 2 and 7 make up the fifth and final instalment of the Symphony Cycle with conductor Osmo Vänskä and Minnesota Orchestra; a cycle which has received universal praise.

The first instalment in Osmo Vänskä’s and Minnesota Orchestra’s Beethoven cycle was released in December 2004 and was immediately praised for the performances as well as for the state-of-the-art sound. The following discs have, if anything, strengthened the case for this cycle.

The disc opens with Symphony No. 2, completed in 1802 during one of the darkest periods of the composer’s life, as he was struggling to reconcile himself with his encroaching deafness. Under the circumstances, as Beethoven specialist Barry Cooper points out in his liner notes, a striking feature of the work is ‘its thoroughly optimistic character throughout – it is almost as if he was using the symphony as a means of escape.’

Following it is the Seventh Symphony in which the strong rhythmic drive that pervades all four movements has made it a favourite in the concert hall – among its admirers was Richard Wagner who famously dubbed it ‘the apotheosis of the dance’.