Beethoven

I wish description clearly mentions it is a live recording. While the performance and recording is fantastic, the ambient noise (including coughing) spoils the otherwise a great collection to have.

Not too expensive but great quality from dg

Although Abbado died in January 2014, it's good to know that people still want to listen to his recordings. As such, DG has issued some retrospective Abbado boxes containing many of his late recordings.This Abbado Beethoven box includes his late-period Beethoven cycle with the Berliners. Although he did a Beethoven cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1980s, he re-recorded the cycle towards the end of his years in Berlin. By most accounts, the Viennese recordings were self-conscious and uneven. I am willing to take Abbado on trust in accepting his "Maroon Box" cycle as his preferred legacy cycle, using recordings made in Rome and a re-edited version of his 2000 DG Choral from his first Berlin cycle. In his Berlin Beethoven cycle, Abbado adopts many of the traits of the historically sensitive performers like Gardiner and Harnoncourt, using the Jonathan Del Mar Baerenreiter editions. Though there have been many memorable readings of the past, this is still a wonderful cycle. It encapsulates the best aspects of Abbado's conducting, lyrical and dramatic by turns - in short, a balanced and adaptable deportment that gives the different sections the chance to shine and to interact.I confess that I've already written a more substantive review of the Maroon Beethoven Symphonies box last year. So I admit that this review may not be my best since I would like to avoid rehashing my points on that cycle. It would be good for prospective purchases to look at my detailed review here:  Symphonies The lighter symphonies benefit from chamber-like textures and well-sprung, dance-like rhythms. As such they harken back to Haydn and Mozart. However, the middle period symphonies allow the cycle to take off. There are some particular highlights that I wish to mention. I love the way that the funeral march of the Eroica lapses into the abyss towards the end. I also love the autumnal glow in the slow variations at the end of the Eroica finale. The Fifth is given a full-bodied yet propulsive performance, and the Pastoral is a lovely, Italianate performance with superb wind contributions. The Choral is a mighty fine performance and benefits from an excellent quartet of soloists. Occasionally I wish that the chorus had been a bit more forwardly balanced so they could better project their words.Abbado and Pollini collaborated on a Beethoven piano concerto cycle in the early 1990s. I know of Pollini's Vienna recordings of the Beethoven concertos with Bohm and Jochum, but he still fares well in his retake with Abbado. Pollini's playing is spirited, well-balanced and clear, and Abbado and the Berliners support him well through the five concertos.In addition, to the two big cycles, we get Abbado's only recording of the Triple Concerto with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. There are also two stand-alone Beethoven discs that Abbado and the Berliners did during his period of music directorship. He did an all-Beethoven programme for the 1992 New Year's Eve concert and also a CD of incidental music in 1996. I don't know these recordings well so I can't comment on them. Nevertheless, it is still a bargain to have these two Beethoven cycles in this box.I know that this box is missing the 2011 Abbado Fidelio with Jonas Kaufman and also a number of his miscellaneous Beethoven offerings on other labels (including his 1996 Sony account of the Choral.) However, this is still a wonderful way to be acquainted with Abbado's way with Beethoven. I note that his cycle of the symphony cycles is just as good as the great cycles of the past, including Karajan 63 and Gardiner.

I have all the recordings in this DG 10 CD box in earlier issues on individual discs. The Symphonies are Abbado's second complete cycle; they show the influence of the period instrument movement. Clarity of texture and frequent exposition repeats are prominent. The Berlin Philharmonic is reduced in size to a large chamber orchestra in Symphonies 1 through 8. I like Abbado's approach as a meeting of traditional instruments and period playing textures and tempos, even though I like Beethoven Symphony recordings of Bohm/ Vienna (DG), Bernstein/Vienna (DG), Szell/Cleveland (Sony), and Walter/Columbia (Sony).Pollini's Beethoven Concerto set with Abbado was rather controversial; some critics felt it lacked depth and was more about a surface virtuosity. I found them satisfying, if Pollini could have been a bit slower and more expressive but the man has technique to burn!The incidental music discs and Berlin 1992 concert are both excellent. I especially like Yevgeny Kissin's pianism in the Choral Fantasia in c minor, and Cheryl Studer's "Ah, Perfido." The "Consecration of the House" music is a delight, and rarely heard apart from the overture.It's too bad DG did not include Abbado's Vienna Philharmonic Beethoven Overtures with this set: They are excellent and should be more available to the US public. But I am glad for this, a bargain at about $3/disc. I paid ALOT MORE than that for individual released in the 1990s and early 2000s!

Le direzioni di Abbado sono tutte magistrali......

il ciclo Beethoven live di sanra Cecilia in tournée coi Berliner.i concerti con Pollini.e tutte le musiche di scena più altro del periodo di Abbado a Berlino.c'è altro da aggiungere?

Grande opera del percorso del grande Maestro Milanese con i Berliner, semplicemente fantastici i concerti con il grandissimo pianista Milanese Maurizo Pollini. In sintesi contenuto eccezzzzzzionale purtroppo la registrazione non è eccelsa. Consiglio di ascoltarli tutti i cd, perche potete trovare (come al sottoscritto) un cd che non suona, prontamente sostituito dal servizo fantastico prime.Concludendo un opera imperdibile per un melomane che ama la sinfonica e Beethoven

Grande raccolta, da avere per chi ama la musica classica. Tutti i CD si sentono bene. Consegna Amazon ottima.

Come spesso si sente, in chi è un audiofilo, "ecco l'ennesima interpretazione... io ne ho tante"; sarebbe un grave errore. Questa ultima versione (dell'ultimo grande direttore della storia umana) è stata costruita dopo essersi cimentato già in una edizione ma inserendo quelle "indicazionii" segnate sugli spartiti di beehoven. La 6° assolutamente al livello di Bruno Walter con una tempesta da brividi... e la 3° impareggiabile. Riducendo l'orchestrazione si apprezzano molte sfumature soprattutto delle sinfonie meno blasonate.