Best Recordings of Beethoven's Symphonies
 

There are so many so-called 'essential' recordings of the fuckers that I don't know where to even begin. I know Karajan is meant to be a bit of a safe bet. I have his 1983 recording of the 9th with the Berliner Philharmoniker and that's great, but I've heard that earlier - I think from the 70s - recordings by him are the 'best'. Any other conductors' interpretations worth looking out for?

Did Pierre Boulez conduct any, demon? His stuff is usually exemplarary.

Sir Georg Solti's 9th with the Chicago Symphony is my favorite.

Barenboim may be a safe bet , also.
What sucks about classical music , is that no one knows how it was meant to be played , so people can play it the way they like.
The older recordings are generally better , imo.

It seems like Karajan is the most popular, but I often think a bit of a cult has been built around him that eclipses other interpretations. I'm not basing this on any musical insight whatsoever, by the way.

I find Karajan's good on the bombastic ones (1st, 3rd, 5th) but not so good on the slower ones (especially the 6th, but most of the 7th & 8th). Generally speaking I'd avoid the 9th, but that's a personal thing. Toscannini does a good job of the 3rd, but I've not heard him do much else. I should imagine Furtwangler does a good job. I'm not really in any position to say, I've not heard enough recordings to decide, methinks.

Karajan was clearly an utter cunt mind you.

"I vos not ein Nazi!"
"Um, okay, but you're still eine totale Fotze."
"Jawohl, und was ist das Problem damit?"

All this justs makes me want to give up and buy the lot on Naxos. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyway.

demonrail - I've found a release of Boulez conducting yer man:

http://www.hbdirect.com/album_detail.php?pid=337732

Aside from the Solti, I bought all 9 symphonies in a set for $10. They're not bad. I don't really like the 9th from the box, though, because it's 9 minutes shorter than the Solti version.

Karajan, Barenboim or Michael Tilson Thomas would all be safe bets, as far as recording quality goes as well, look for disks that are recorded with sony DSD if buying modern recordings.

most of the naxos recordings are very good and cheap, i have tons of them.

You can't go wrong with the original recordings.

What sort of a cunt would start a thread about Beethoven on a Sonic Youth site? Fuck me, what pretentious pricks some people are.

Beethoven
 

Yeah, I think you might be a bit wet about this one. They are the Beethoven of our time. They've mastered the art of harmony deriving from melody and dissonance at the same time, interwoven. Moreover, they belong to a small group that is both socially and artistically conscious (in the deepest sense), learning from music that one would not normally associate them with and arts beyond music--and yet maintaining a strong sense of the world beyond. Not confusing fame with accomplishment, they exemplify good artistry.

Could you imagine Beethoven sticking with classical instruments if he were alive today? Why limit yourself.

So I am interested in learning what like-minded SY fans have to say about Beethoven recordings. I like the Claudio Arrau piano concertos. What are thoughts him being keyed in to how the pieces were intended to be played?

jim

The millions of different versions of the same pieces by different conductors thing throws me off so much. It's probably why I know so little of classical music.