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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6
'Two fundamentally different symphonies: both works explore feelings from an entirely different point of view. The Fourth is about human feelings and moods: obsession, love (what a melody in the second movement!), happiness, fun, wit, (Beethoven's most humorous finale!). The Sixth is about feelings that nature awakens in us: calmness, meditation, thankfulness. It has been an especially creative process to work on these masterpieces. We discovered that the Fourth Symphony sounds better with natural horns and trumpets. In the Pastorale we used a different seating arrangement, with the winds scattered among the strings, so that each soloist was surrounded by musicians playing the flow of Beethoven's nature music. After the storm, when we hear the first tentative call of the clarinet, answered by the horn from a different mountain, as it were, we found it appropriate to use a solo violin, which is gradually joined by the whole orchestra.' Iván Fischer “Fischer only invokes fevered revolution at certain moments and elsewhere concentrates on well-argued phrases and a general sense of wonderment ...Woodwind and brass detailing is excellent throughout, while the sublime close leaves you itching to hear Fischer's Seventh.” The Independent on Sunday, 24th October 2010 “Warmth, grace, bubbling energy: these are among the winning attributes of Fischer’s performances, with his Budapest Festival Orchestra, of Beethoven’s fourth and sixth symphonies. Plus a little presumption: ignoring the score, Fischer launches the sixth’s finale with a solo violin, not the full corpus.” The Times, 4th December 2010 **** “The specifically "east of Vienna" dimension is not merely felt in the fiery thrust of the 2/4 section of the "Peasant's Merrymaking". It is all-pervasive. Iván Fischer's direction is in the Toscanini class in its clarity and verve.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2011 “Fischer finds more mystery in the slow introduction to the first movement of the Fourth Symphony than many other conductors...And it gets better and better: there's a beautiful, singing quality to the Adagio, and the neat, pointed performance of the last movement is all you could wish for.” Classic FM Magazine, January 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
“Fischer… offers a sparkling performance of the popular overture to Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers, and his account of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is impressive, with the major-mode episodes of the famous second movement warm and glowing, and the Dionysiac finale tremendously exciting.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2008 ***** “Fischer and his players romp through the finale like devils possessed, pausing only when strings wrestle for supremacy.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2008 “As a totality, the disc is consequently bitty, but the performance of the Seventh ranks, without question, among the greatest ever recorded. With the Budapest Festival Orchestra playing as if their lives depended on it, it's superbly articulated, thrillingly elated and emotionally exhausting. Weber, on first hearing the work, wondered whether its composer was insane, and for once you understand why. Utterly compelling.” The Guardian, 18th April 2008 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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