CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Music and Recordings => Topic started by: lm4der on July 07, 2015, 04:15:38 PM
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I am looking for an excellent Beethoven Symphony cycle, by which I mean excellent in terms of recording and sound quality. I am not asking about the best performances in terms of the interpretation of the music, but specifically the quality of the recording itself. I have heard some good performances that suffer from somewhat poor recording quality, such as Toscanini. There is one that I own that I think has very good SQ, which is Georg Solti with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I enjoy historically informed performances, but that is not a requirement, as again, my criteria here is recording quality.
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Riccardo Chailly's one
(https://welltempered.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/riccadro-chailly-beethoven.jpg)
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The Minnesota Orchestra/Vanska cycle has supplanted the 1963 BPO/Karajan set for me as my go-to cycle. They were originally released on SACD by BIS, and the recordings are every bit as good as we've come to expect from that label. EDIT: You can get them as high-res downloads at eClassical; $73.65 for the complete set, or buy them a la carte.
For HIP, I haven't heard anything to top the Manchester Camerata/Boyd cycle. You can buy them as downloads at The Classical Shop, Chandos' site.
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Awesome, thank you both for the suggestions. I'll look all of those up. And if I pull the trigger I'll give you report.
If anyone else has their own fav, please don't hesitate to post.
Cheers.
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Picking the perfect Beethoven set is hard!
If you want a complete cycle, my personal favorite has always been the 1962 Von Karajan Set.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Karajan_Beethoven_Symphonies_1963.jpg)
People will bitch about it because it is a bit hissy. This is true but it's also a good sign that the tapes weren't no-noised. I have heard rumors that there are better tapes of this cycle but I have yet to hear them or even know of a commercial release using the better tapes.
My next favorite is this set:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71LVJgwU9VL._SL1144_.jpg)
Gardiner did a fantastic job with this cycle. I believe he used period instruments. The sound quality - stock - is superb and you can pull A LOT out of this set using a good EQ.
Now...as far as individual performances go...
This is one is just superb...
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OUewzhnBL.jpg)
Benjamin Zander is not only a conductor and pianist but a great musicologist and researcher. He went in-depth when studying Beethoven's works and noticed that most, if not all performances, were done at the wrong tempo. Further research led to this performance and the result is nothing short of exhilarating and great. Hearing the correct tempi for these symphonies is an eye and ear opener. This is definitely my favorite performance of the 5th and 7th. Sound quality is superb.
Here is a small sample but trust me - the recording is much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXdWELSgEQ
(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0000/998/MI0000998387.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Ditto on the above except for the 9th. Probably the most glorious 9th I have heard. I really wish Zander would do the entire cycle. He definitely has a special touch with classical music. Here is a TED TALK he did...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LCwI5iErE
Hope that helps out a little bit. I have a ton of Beethoven and these are my favorites.
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The way Zander controls the tempo in the 5th. Whoa. Finally. A recording. An interpretation. That. Propels. He maintains the tempos and changes them. The feeling of ecstasy. Intense. Thanks. Thanks. I can remember how good performances are supposed to sound like but it is rare to encounter them without digging through many many others.
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Picking the perfect Beethoven set is hard!
If you want a complete cycle, my personal favorite has always been the 1962 Von Karajan Set.
Yeah, it's hard, especially if sound quality is a consideration.
I didn't enjoy the Karajan set (except the Eroica); I found it uninvolving / emotionally detached and glossed over. Maybe Szell offers a compromise: quite good performances and somewhat OK sound.
Thanks for recommending Zander. I'll check it out.
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Carlos Kleiber tops my preferences (DGG) while Ivan Fischer has done an excellent job in more recent years (Channel Classics)
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Both for interpretation and sound, hard to find a better set IMO:
Otmar Suitner/Staatskapelle Berlin, Denon. Everything well judged.
And as always with Denon they show that there is nothing wrong with early digital, if only the sound engineers do their job.
Out of print but often found on Amazon etc.
Example of the interpretation/style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bKwETxylAE
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Both for interpretation and sound, hard to find a better set IMO:
Otmar Suitner/Staatskapelle Berlin, Denon. Everything well judged.
And as always with Denon they show that there is nothing wrong with early digital, if only the sound engineers do their job.
Out of print but often found on Amazon etc.
Example of the interpretation/style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bKwETxylAE
hello,
found the box set and all the individuals on the Big River today (08 July 2015.)
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Edit: the Chailly looks awesome too, will come back to that soon.
Wow, these are all wicked good suggestions. Looking through all of the above, I decided to pull the trigger on the John Elliot Gardner cycle, and the Zander 5th and 7th.
I had to rule out the Minnesota Orchestra/Vanska cycle, as it seems to only be available on SACD. Am I missing something, like maybe there's a way to still rip it to a lossless flac using a standard laptop CD?
The Karajan performance is classic, but I have heard it and didn't love some aspects of the recording quality.
The Otmar Suitner/Staatskapelle Berlin looks pretty sweet, but I am going to hold off and see how I do with the ones on order. I may come back to this one.
Thanks again to all for the awesome input.
BTW, slightly off topic, but a recent discovery for me is the Giardino Armonico recordings of a bunch of Baroque music including Bach Brandenburgs and Vivaldi Four Seasons. Really something special - here's a youtube of some Vivaldi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-mKf4RRVsI
I just wanted to throw that out there...
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Thanks to this thread you guys have me going through all my hard drives looking for my Beethoven recordings. I think I have something like 14 different cycles and dozens of individual ones. I'll report back once I have time to evaluate them all. :)p3
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Heard the Giardino Armonico on a couple of occasions and they are without doubt among the best Italian baroque ensembles.
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The Minnesota cycle is available for download at eClassical.
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I'll report back once I have time to evaluate them all.
Yes! Please do.
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Ok, so for my tastes, the Zander 5th and 7th are totally hitting the spot. Beautiful sounding recording, very immersive, and the interpretation is my favorite so far.
I'm a little skeptical of the Gardner cycle at this point, but I need to give it some more listens. I know that Gardner worked hard at trying to determine Beethoven's intended tempos, but in some places things really seem rushed to me. Like I say, need some more time with it. The recording quality is good, but I don't feel quite as close to the orchestra as I would like. Noticed the same thing on Gardner's Brandenburgs.