All recordingsPrices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 3 & 5
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| |  | Gustavo Dudamel: Europakonzert 2012
Every year the Berliner Philharmoniker invites artists for the orchestra’s traditional birthday concert on May 1st. In 2012, the guests were Gustavo Dudamel, conducting, and Gautier Capuçon (cello) and was performed at the Spanische Hofreitschule in Vienna - A spectacular and unique setting for a thrilling and historic music event. The Spanish Riding School has, to this day, a long standing relationship with music: The famous “Musikverein” was founded here in 1812. Furthermore, Haydn’s musical career started in its back garden! |
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| |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos.1 & 5
Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Stefan Blunier |
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| |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 7 & Leonore Overture
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| |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7Recorded live in Carnegie Hall, New York City in October 2011
Nearly twenty years after their acclaimed Beethoven Symphonies recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique returned to this repertoire for the first time last year, in a tour that took them to London, Philadelphia, Washington and New York. The concert in Carnegie Hall was broadcast live by WQXR, who kindly agreed to make the recording available to us to release on our label. Sir John Eliot’s Gardiner’s reading of these familiar pieces highlights their revolutionary origin. Performing on period instruments, the ORR brings light, clarity and brisk energy, as well as a warm and genuinely thrilling sound. The Seventh, famously described by Wagner as the “apotheosis of the dance”, stands out by its sheer physical energy expressed in its many obsessively repetitive passages. The Fifth, often considered to be a deeply personal piece, also reveals echoes of revolutionary songs. The album is packaged in a digipack and contains a 36 pages booklet with original notes by BBC presenter and music journalist Stephen Johnson. “the electricity in the air is almost tangible. Gardiner is merciless in his demands...The tempo is often exhilarating, the playing always vital, edgy and thrillingly fluent. This is the most exciting Beethoven release you are likely to hear this year.” The Observer, 14th October 2012 “The pace still feels driven, the tension high, but there’s a greater sense of fun and a touch more colour now. You sense that Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique now have these difficult pieces under their collective skin, and can now project them with a little more spontaneity and freedom. This Fifth seethes, bubbles and spits in places...Symphony no 7 is better still, its rapt introduction leading to an astonishing, punchy Vivace.” The Arts Desk, 20th October 2012 “Even if Weber didn’t make the famous remark attributed to him — “Beethoven is ripe for the madhouse” — you can understand his reaction. Played as the ORR play it, it can still make your hair stand on end.” Sunday Times, 28th October 2012 “The execution is fabulous, the (superlative) stylistic foundation always at the service of the music’s rhythm, energy and inner logic...With every performance of these symphonies, the listener ought to be taken aback at the revolutionary force of Beethoven’s language. Where many fail, Gardiner succeeds.” Financial Times, 24th November 2012 **** “So palpable is the excitement of these live performances that it almost comes as a shock that the applause has been excised...Gardiner and his resplendent Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique rejoice here in the sheer physicality of the music...These are the kind of performances that remind us of what a revolution of reassessment period-instrument bands provoke.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2013 “after hearing these explosive, invigorating and electrifying performances, we are reminded once again of the ferocious intensity that must have shell-shocked 19th-century Viennese audiences...Gardiner brings tremendous rhythmic drive and irresistable forward momentum to both Symphonies and revels in the sheer audacity of Beethoven's orchestration” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 **** “These are thrusting, dynamic performances...though the music is played very speedily there’s no skating over Beethoven’s drama and argument.” MusicWeb International, November 2012 | | | (also available to download from $10.75) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 - 6
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| |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
Major documents from Rudolf Kempe's later years at the head of the Munich Philharmonic. Beethoven's Fifth, that masterpiece of emotional tension, and his Sixth, all vivid depiction of nature, are both readings of maturity and perfection. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | including nine documentaries in a hardcover box
After the very successful release of the single DVDs we now release Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1 – 9 including nine one hour documentaries, one for each film. Maestro Thielemann and Joachim Kaiser (the most famous German music critic) discuss and analyze in an entertaining conversational exchange Thielemann’s interpretation, complemented by excerpts from rehearsals as well as by comparisons of Beethoven cycles with Karajan, Bernstein, Böhm, Järvi etc. This is the Beethoven cycle of the 21st century! 9 DVDs or 3 Blu-rays in a valuable hardcover box with 16 hours of concerts and documentaries. “Thielemann´s reading of the Beethoven symphonies stands heads and shoulders above the countless and mostly undistinguishable versions on offer.” Die Presse “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 * * */ * “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 * * * * Total: 956 minutes Symphonies: 446 minutes Documentaries: 510 minutes DVD: DTS 5.0, PCM Stereo Subtitles E, F, Sp, I, Kor., Chin. NTSC: 3 DVD Amaray boxes in a harcover box (containing 9 DVDs) “the hour-long film that accompanies each of the nine masterpieces here...is chock-full of revealing information...the radiant sanity of [Thielemann's] approach shines through every bar...for a set in which the Austro-German invincibility of this extraordinary music is felt gradually mounting through the cycle as a whole, as if in one magnificent sweep, we haven't had a set to compare seriously with this since Karajan's final cycle of the 1980s.” International Record Review, January 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sir Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti (1912–1997) had been the Music Director of the Opera House, Covent Garden for two years by the time this performance the overture to Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer was filmed. His reputation for recording Wagner was becoming established, having achieved great success with the first complete recording of Das Rheingold in 1958 for Decca. This studio recording comes just two weeks after he performed orchestral extracts from Götterdämmerung and Tristan und Isolde at the Proms with the ROH Orchestra, a recording released on BBC Legends to great acclaim. Solti’s studio recordings of Richard Strauss operas were groundbreaking, achieving him a great reputation as a Strauss conductor with high levels of expressiveness, drama and precision. This performance of Beethoven 5 was filmed during his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and was the work that reputedly led Solti to decide to become a conductor on hearing a recording with Erich Kleiber. It is clear from this thrilling performance that his sense of drama did not diminish with age. This DVD benefits from fascinating bonus rehearsal footage of Don Juan and an interview with John Culshaw in which Solti talks about performing the music of Strauss. Solti’s Complete Wagner Edition on Decca is a Penguin Guide first recommendation. This is the first DVD release. Sound format: Enhanced Mono Picture format: 4:3 Running time: 78’ Subtitles: F/G Menu languages: English Booklet languages: E/F/G Region code: 0 Territory Restrictions: None | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
"What a pleasant surprise …. this is certainly a beautiful performance... Mehta leads the orchestra into an excellent performance - warm, flowing with serenity and charm. The recording was made during several live performances in Tel Aviv last July, and the quality is very good." Omer Shomroni, Globes newspaper | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Gramophone Magazine