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TechnoTV - Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies and Piano Concertos
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List Price: $62.98
Our Price: $37.99
Your Save: $ 24.99 ( 40% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0724357389525
Format: Box set
Label: EMI Classics
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
Number Of Discs: 9
Publisher: EMI Classics
Release Date: 2000-11-07
Studio: EMI Classics
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great price for a great collection
Comment: I'm not an educated musician or something, I was just looking for the Symphonies and found this amazing collection that includes the full piano concertos, and at a great price!
Really easy to recommend.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: classical soundtrack
Comment: This music lifts itself an dthe movie to a higher level. Only listening brings you in the movie. One to have
Customer Rating:
Summary: Klemperer and Walter on Beethoven
Comment: In Ms. Quinn's review of this Klemperer Beethoven set, she refers to Bruno Walter's Beethoven symphony set on Columbia,which she describes as done with the "?Chicago Symphony". I believe she's referring to the late 1950s Columbia/Walter stereo set made in LA with the "Columbia Symphony", a pickup orchestra of LA"s best studio musicians. Columbia's producer assembled that orchestra specifically for Dr. Walter, thereby giving that great conductor an opportunity to record what turned out to be his last thoughts on Beethoven, Brahms, and others. I believe this Walter set deserves to be placed alongside Klemperer's, von Karajan's (1962 series), and Toscanini's (1949-1952 series) as an exemplar of surpassingly great Beethoven performances. I grew up with the Toscanini set and still listen to it---but there is no one way of playing these symphonies.
To give just one example: Each of the four Eroicas in these sets presents a unique view of this greatest of all symphonies. Von Karajan and Toscanini offer unstoppable forward momentum while treating the even-numbered movements differently. Walter sees in the score a beauty that I haven't heard elsewhere; and Klemperer shows how inevitable the Eroica is when you can hear all the notes. If I had to live with just two, I'd choose one of the two EMI Klemperers: Either this stereo Klemperer or the 1955 mono Klemperer (available separately in EMI's Great Recordings of the Century series)---and my other choice would be the 1949 Toscanini Eroica. I don't believe that I can live with just one Eroica.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What's not to like?
Comment: For me, this is the top choice for stereo Beethoven cycles. Klemperer conducted with a grandeur that is sadly not to be found among today's conductor's. His "Eroica" is still among the best around alongside Furtwangler, Abendroth & Weingartner. His 9th is easily a top 10 choice, behind a couple by Furtwangler (of course), Weingartner, Reiner and Fricsay. The rest of the set is also very solid, especially 4 and 6 (one of the very best, after Walter and Bohm) without a subpar performance in the bunch. As an added bonus, you get a high caliber set of the piano concertos by Barenboim and Klemperer, though not quite of the quality of Fleisher/Szell or Kempff/Van Kempen. When you factor in the cost (You can usually find it for under $40) this great set is a steal.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great performances
Comment: These are classic, fine performances of the Beethoven symphonic and piano concerto canon by one of the great artists of the 20th century. They are not necessarily the most passionate or electrifying of Klemperer's recorded legacy; those belong to many of the live performances recorded from the early 1950's through the early 1960's. So why get this set (besides the price, which is a steal)?
The answer is that these are by far the best recorded of Klemperer's Beethoven performances and showcase his extraordinarily meticulous attention to balance, phrasing and dynamics. Always present is the nearly unique command of long-term tension and release, the command of the structure of each symphony or concerto as a whole, and the innate sense of musical drama which makes his performances so satisfying. The Philharmonia is ideally suited to Klemperer's vision, with its sure-footed brass, solo-quality first-chair winds and elegant but light strings. Klemperer may not have cared particularly about orchestral sound - his was most often called granitic -- but the results are certainly beautiful. And the recorded sound allows us to hear all of this. EMI lavished its skills on these recordings, making them in the marvelous acoustics of Kingsway hall; they sound warm, detailed and natural.
Klemperer's vision of Beethoven is powerful and uncompromising. Yes, the tempi are slow in the faster movements, but there is a fierce intelligence and indominable spirit that radiates through these performances and makes them towering and, at their best, earth-shaking. Klemperer had a special affinity for Beethoven. Both men's lives were compromised by chronic health issues and pain: for Beethoven, the deafness and chronic indigestion and bowel-problems; for Klemperer, the brain tumor, resulting partial paralysis, broken bones, and the manic-depression. Both men were notoriously cranky and crabby. And yet both men created (or recreated) music which expresses the human spirit's triumph over adversity as well as music of extraordinary beauty.
No-one would call Klemperer's Beethoven crisp or fleet. Even though he was a truly 20th century conductor in eschewing the rhetorical gestures of romanticism and focusing on the holy writ of the score, he was enough of a child of 19th century Germany to favor a massive and hortatory approach, with prominent brass, thundering tympani and dramatic underlining.
In the concerti, the young Barenboim and the old Klemperer seem to cancel out each other's idiosynracies to produce some of the finest performances of the concerti on record. Again, these are recorded in splendid sound which barely shows its age.
At this price, there is no reason not to purchase this set. Whether this will be your favorite Beethoven symphony set will depend on your personal taste; but it is important enough to reward your careful listening, even if it's only from time to time.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Otto Klemperer's Beethoven is one of the towering achievements in the history of recordings. By today's standards, these performances are hopelessly old-fashioned: dark, heavy, and frequently very slow. But they are also the grandest, most unsentimental, most purposeful versions in the catalog. In addition, the relatively slow tempos (only in the fast movements--the slow ones are pretty swift) and forward wind balance permit more detail to be heard than in most original-instrument performances. At budget price and with the entire piano concerto cycle thrown in for good measure, this is greatness incarnate. --David Hurwitz
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