Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  |
When Gielen started confronting orchestras and audiences with Performances of Beethoven that took the composer’s metronome markings literally, he was met with displeasure and incomprehension on all sides. The prevailing opinion was that there was something wrong with Beethoven’s metronome (or else with the conductor who took the figures seriously). But Gielen refuses to see why Fate necessarily has to knock at the door slowly (in the Fifth). “Why can’t it knock rapidly? After all, Fate is impatient.” And a gigantic movement like the Allegro con brio of the “Eroica” is incomprehensible except at the fast tempo Beethoven asks for. The Legendary Recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies with SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg. Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3 Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 Subtitles: English, German, French Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: DVD 1: 110 mins, DVD 2: 114 mins, DVD 3: 141 mins “they are in every way worth hearing. Whilst there is nothing flashy or of novelty for its own sake about these performances they are imaginative, coherent and well considered. Internal balance is superbly well controlled so that the listener is constantly amazed at just how much they have missed in other performances...All in all this is a set impressive for its understanding, honesty and conviction” MusicWeb International, March 2013 | 
| | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | 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 BD: dts-HD MA 5.0, PCM Stereo Subtitles E, F, Sp, I, Kor., Chin. Blu-ray: 3 BD in a harcover box “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 “Listen to the Scherzos and Minuets of the first four symphonies. They fairly spring out of the blocks with a muscular tension that brooks no obstacle or oppositions, the orchestra perfectly weighted body in total control of its limbs and members...most of these performances seem contrived as a luxuriously appointed bulwark against feared forces of change and dogma...The concert films show an orchestra in happy union with its conductor” Gramophone Magazine, April 2012 | | | This item is currently out of stock at the UK distributor. You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched. |
|
|
| |  | Knappertsbusch conducts Beethoven
| | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
|
|
| |  |
(Recorded 1943/1956) | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Beethoven: Complete Symphonies, Vol. II
Live recording, Wiener Festwochen, 1960 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1-9 & 'The Beethoven Project'
| | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Recorded live at the Philharmonie Berlin and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, 2000-2001
Blu-ray release of the successful DVD Box on the occasion of Claudio Abbado’s 80th Anniversary. In February 2001 the Berliner Philharmoniker and Claudio Abbado were guests at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with all Beethoven symphonies. Their success was overwhelming with standing ovations after each performance. This exclusive box containing the complete Beethoven Symphonies performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker includes a special multi-angle feature: each Disc offers sequences from the “conductor camera” showing the maestro from his perspective. Including the 26 mins interview “Abbado on Beethoven”. Critics spoke of seminal moments in the history of music. Picture format Blu-ray Disc: 16:9 Sound formats Blu-ray Disc: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 Region code: All (worldwide) Subtitles (Symphony No. 9): English, French, German, Spanish, Italian Booklet notes: English, French, German Running time: 413 mins |
| | | Scheduled for release on 1 July 2013. Order it now and we will deliver it as soon as it is available. |
|
|
| |  | Live from the 2012 BBC Proms
plus: DVD 4 Barenboim on Beethoven: Nine Symphonies that Changed the World Documentary
Following on from last year’s momentous Beethoven For All project on Decca, this new DVD box set contains all nine Beethoven symphonies, filmed at the 2012 Proms, where the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under conductor Daniel Barenboim took residence for a week. The box set also features the BBC documentary ‘Barenboim on Beethoven: Nine Symphonies that changed the world’ by Michael Waldman and Peter Dale. The film gains a unique insight into the nine symphonies, as well as the musicians’ views on the difficulties and delights of performing these inimitable works. Captured within the documentary, Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra take the complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies on tour to China and South Korea, to explore why these works are so often regarded as one of the greatest achievements of Western culture. Their tour culminates in a performance of the 9th Symphony, next to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Barenboim and members of the orchestra reveal what it is about this music that is so striking today and what made Beethoven’s music so revolutionary at the time it was written. |
| | Decca - 0743817 (DVD Video - 4 discs) Normally: $56.25 Special: $49.00 |
| | Scheduled for release on 1 July 2013. Order it now and we will deliver it as soon as it is available. |
|
|
| |  | Recorded live at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, February 2001 (Nos. 1-8); Recorded live at the Philharmonie, Berlin, May 2000 (No.9)
These recordings are the fruit of decades of Claudio Abbado’s deep involvement with Beethoven. Many years of shared artistic experience create a tangible harmony and understanding between the orchestra and Abbado. His musical intentions and the orchestra’s musical expression become one, leading to an outstandingly beautiful unity of sound. The live performances were an overwhelming success with standing ovations after each of the concerts. Critics considered the concerts as seminal moments in the history of music. A conductor camera option allows to see Abbado from the perspective of the orchestra. Includes Abbado’s interview about Beethoven. All in all: a priceless document of the work of one of the greatest artists of our time. Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sounds formats: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 Booklet notes: English, German, French Subtitles: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish Running time: 413 mins (DVD1 106 mins, DVD2 78 mins, DVD3 122 mins, DVD4 81 mins + 26 mins Bonus) German FSK: 0 “Abbado, a Furtwängler admirer in principle, seems ever more Italian, his tauter lyricism allied to a sense of forward movement influenced, we are told, by period practice. The surprise is not the Mediterranean luminosity and scrupulous attention to instrumental detail - one expects nothing less from this source - but the animating sense of line. The Seventh Symphony... knows precisely where it's going and why... The sense of joy present throughout is overwhelming by the close.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009 “the joy and the life behind these performances makes it pretty plain why he chose this set as his “legacy set” for Beethoven...the peerless playing and outstanding direction make it a joy to experience.” MusicWeb International, March 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  |
Sinéad Mulhern (soprano), Carolin Masur (mezzo-soprano), Dominik Wortig (tenor) & Konstantin Wolff (bass-baritone) La Chambre Philharmonique (on period instruments) & Choeur de Chambre les Éléments, Emmanuel Krivine Nominated for the Classical Brits in 2012, Emmanuel Krivine's period-instrument set on Naïve is now repressed due to popular demand. La Chambre Philharmonique was formed by Emmanuel Krivine and is made up of instrumentalists from the finest European ensembles. Its structure is original, in that conductor and players enjoy equal status and current members choose new players. The size of the ensemble is flexible, bringing together players, instruments and historical techniques as appropriate for each programme. The orchestra’s first recording of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor (V5043) marked the beginning of its collaboration with Naïve. This was followed by the world premiere recording on period instruments of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’, coupled with Schumann’s Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra, which won a Classique d’Or RTL on its release in 2008. Since then its CDs of Mendelssohn’s Symphonies (V5069) and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (V5202) have received numerous awards in the press. These performances of the complete Beethoven Symphonies were recorded in three French venues, Cite de la Musique in Paris, MC2: Grenoble, and the Theatre de Caen). Nominated for the Classical Brits in 2012, Emmanuel Krivine's period-instrument set on Naïve is now repressed due to popular demand. "here is an unheralded period-instrument set to challenge Messrs Vanska, Zinman, Mackerras and the rest. Characterful and confident, it demands to be heard....I am inclined to place this new cycle fairly near the top of the pile" Rob Cowan, Gramophone Gramophone Editor's Choice, July 2011 "if you are yet to invest in a collection of these symphonies but were never sure which version to go for, then hesitate no longer." James McCarthy, Classic FM Magazine, June 2011 ***** "Emmanuel Krivine's set, recorded live at concerts given in Grenoble, Caen and Paris in 2009, is spectacular - largely because whilst listening you're convinced that what you're hearing is is the only way this music should ever sound...a fantastic bargain, and possibly the most consistently enjoyable period-instrument recording available." Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk “Perhaps the first thing that will strike you about these recordings is that they certainly don't hang around...This may come as a shock to those used to more indulgent, romantically-inclined accounts, but I'm sure that all will be won over by these consistently engaging performances...I particularly love the way that the orchestra tears into the propulsive rhythms of the Seventh Symphony...These are wonderful performances” Classic FM Magazine, June 2011 ***** “In providing us with this vital, meekly played and always engaging new period-instrument Beethoven cycle, Emmanuel Krivine is effectively challenging what has in recent years become an all-too-familiar template of sleek, bloodless lines and fast-lane tempi...Krivine knows how to slam a Beethovenian sforzando without breaking glass...He knows how to let the music breathe, too - where to put on the pressure and where to ease off again” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011 “Krivine's set...is spectacular – largely because whilst listening you’re convinced that what you’re hearing is the only way that this music should ever sound. The effect is uproarious, occasionally shocking and consistently exhilarating. The orchestral sound is inevitably sparer, thinner, but the colours are much sharper...This is a fantastic bargain, and possibly the most consistently enjoyable period-instrument recording available.” Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk, 18th June 2011 |
| | | (also available to download from $30.75) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |
|
Gramophone Magazine