BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 7, 8 & 9

“The performances, the Vienna Philharmonic on top form, can't help sounding wonderful...oddly, it is the discussions that are the most enjoyable elements in this ambitious set.” --BBC Music Magazine, March 2011

“This is growling, mane-shaking Beethoven: a traditional approach to the music with full sound and large forces. Thielemann takes a precise yet lyrical approach to the music, as he discusses and demonstrates in the three hour-long accompanying musicological discussions.” --Classic FM Magazine ****

BEETHOVEN Symphonies 4, 5 & 6

“The performances, the Vienna Philharmonic on top form, can't help sounding wonderful...oddly, it is the discussions that are the most enjoyable elements in this ambitious set.” --BBC Music Magazine, March 2011

“This is growling, mane-shaking Beethoven: a traditional approach to the music with full sound and large forces. Thielemann takes a precise yet lyrical approach to the music, as he discusses and demonstrates in the three hour-long accompanying musicological discussions.” --Classic FM Magazine ****

BEETHOVEN Symphonies 1, 2 & 3

“The performances, the Vienna Philharmonic on top form, can't help sounding wonderful...oddly, it is the discussions that are the most enjoyable elements in this ambitious set.” --BBC Music Magazine, March 2011

“This is growling, mane-shaking Beethoven: a traditional approach to the music with full sound and large forces. Thielemann takes a precise yet lyrical approach to the music, as he discusses and demonstrates in the three hour-long accompanying musicological discussions.” --Classic FM Magazine ****

This is the start of a Beethoven Symphonies cycle (Nos. 1-9) with Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The Beethoven cycle of the 21st century!

HAYDN Cello Concertos; BEETHOVEN Romances

“He plays wide, beautifully, without drowning the winding outlines of these monologues.” Diapason

“Müller-Schott's phrasing and colouring are always imaginative, and his fast movements are elegant and vital.” --BBC Music Magazine, September 2003

"Genuine discoveries: Beethoven's two romances for violin, which Müller-Schott presents here with his own arrangements, which means that for the first time they are available on a CD in a version arranged for cello." --CD-Tipp Bayern-4 Klassik, July 2003

There’s no shortage of fine young cellists, but Daniel Müller-Schott is one of the most impressive – his brilliant technique, ringing tone and persuasive musicianship combine to great effect in the outer movements of the Haydn concertos. From the outset it’s clear that he and the ACO are clued up on 18th-century performance style, giving us elegantly turned phrases, lifted up beats, springy rhythms and clear textures. This stylishness informs the stateliness of the C major’s first movement, and the joyfulness of the D major finale, but in some respects it’s only skin deep – the D major’s first movement includes, for example, some very strange decisions about slurs and articulation. In such matters Isserlis and Norrington’s COE prove more reliable guides, with Isserlis’s lighter, gentler style providing the most noticeable interpretative contrast. In the slow movements, his delicate expression and flowing tempi are persuasive, but some listeners may prefer Müller- Schott’s more intense expression and broader speeds.

Isserlis/Norrington offer the substantial bonus of a splendid account of the Haydn Sinfonia Concertante, but the extra items here are unusually interesting, too. Müller-Schott’s arrangement of Beethoven’s violin romances consists of transposing the music down an octave and, in Op 40, modifying some double stops. Both romances are beautifully played, with the same sense of poise as in the concertos. Hearing the principal voice in a lower register doesn’t make the music turgid; the overall sound is, indeed, most appealing; the wind passages in Op 40 are especially memorable. Strongly recommended.

Duncan Druce, The Gramophone

BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas, Opp. 2, 101 & 106, "Hammerklavier"

Paavali Jumppanen is an internationally esteemed pianist, with a vast performance repertoire spanning from Bach to the Avant-garde.

“Jumppanen is prodigiously gifted, and he provides deeply felt accounts of the slow movements...but [his] departures from the script elsewhere won't be to everyone's taste. Jumppanen offers an eloquent perofrmance of the Hammerklavier Sonata's Adagio...Good recording sound adds to the allure of these otherwise stimulating performances.” --BBC Music Magazine, May 2014 ****

Paavali Jumppanen is an internationally esteemed pianist, with a vast performance repertoire spanning from Bach to the Avant-garde. Jumppanen’s performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven’s and Mozart’s Piano Sonatas as well as Beethoven’s concertos and chamber music have won critical acclaim.

Jumppanen has collaborated with numerous contemporary composers and has premiered many solo and chamber works for the piano. Of particular note are his recordings of Pierre Boulez’s complete piano sonatas at the request of the composer. This adaptability between musical genres gives a fresh reading of the core classical piano repertoire.

The booklet notes for this release are written by Jumppanen who is also in the process of writing a book on Beethoven’s piano sonatas.

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3, Triple Concerto

Dausgaard leads with a sensitive ear to the poetry and somewhat melancoly expression found in both these concertos, engaging the orchestra in "chamber musical" ensemble with the soloists. But there are massive outbursts as well, in sparkling performance!

“A recording of rare and compelling truthfulness that will stand the test of time.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2006

“the clarity of texture on every level makes for an exceptionally fresh reading.” --Gramophone Magazine  ↪Vol.3

The third piano concerto
In scale, the third concerto is conceived on slightly broader lines than those of the first two numbered concertos, which more closely emulate the classical proportions of Mozart's examples in the genre. Yet in one other particular it follows Mozartian precedent in copying his device (employed uniquely in the C minor concerto, K491, of 1786) of allowing the soloist to continue after the first movement cadenza - in the standard classical coda the orchestra alone was heard from this point on.

The triple
Beethoven's next concerto was composed within a year or so of the premiere of Op.37, and is the only completed example in his output of a concerto for more than one instrument. A frequent practice in the days of Vivaldi or Bach, the putting together of a pair or a group of soloists in the Baroque concerto metamorphosed into the Sinfonia concertante of the classical period, of which both Haydn and Mozart left notable examples. The growing individualism of the nineteenth century, however, which preferred the dramatic notion of the one against the many, saw the virtual extinction of the genre: only Brahms's Double Concerto of 1887 rivals Beethoven's Triple Concerto as a work of the first rank in this entire period. Boris Berezovsky has invited cellist Mats Rondin, sought after chamber musician, and the co-principal leader of the orchestra Urban Svensson in the Triple Concerto.