Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Beethoven: The Symphonies (5CD)
Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe present Beethoven’s nine symphonies in what is the very first recorded cycle to be based on the recently concluded New Complete Edition of the composer’s works.
“I’m interested in how Beethoven’s music can surprise us today,” says Maestro Nézet-Séguin. “Our interpretation should make the audience feel as if they were hearing this music for the first time. That is my goal.”
Originally planned as part of the Beethoven 250 celebrations, this project was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic. Its concerts were rescheduled and recorded in July 2021 at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, where orchestra and conductor were joined in the Ninth Symphony by soloists Siobhan Stagg, Ekaterina Gubanova, Werner Güra and Florian Boesch and the professional choristers of Laurence Equilbey’s Accentus.
The scholarly-critical edition replaces decade after decade of editorial clutter with countless details of articulation and expression recovered from multiple original sources. Among the innovations listeners will hear in this recording is the revised and expanded role of the contrabassoon in the Ninth Symphony, a work edited by Dr Beate Angelika Kraus of the Beethoven Archive in Bonn, who has written a fascinating account of certain aspects of the detective work involved in her research for the booklet notes that accompany the recording.
Symphony No. 1 in C major op. 21
Symphony No. 2 in D major op. 36
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major “Eroica” op. 55
Symphony No. 4 in B flat major op. 60
Symphony No. 5 in C minor op. 67
Symphony No. 6 in F major “Pastoral Symphony, or
Recollections of Country Life. More an Expression of
Feeling Than Painting” op. 68
Symphony No. 7 in A major op. 92
Symphony No. 8 in F major op. 93
Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125
Siobhan Stagg soprano
Ekaterina Gubanova alto
Werner Güra tenor
Florian Boesch bass
Accentus
Christophe Grapperon chorus master
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