Customer Reviews

Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies

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Furtwangler's Beethoven symphonies are now part of legend. Especially the Ninth symphony, recorded in Bayreuth just after WWII. This recording is full of tension and also of hope. No one ever understood Beethoven as well as Furtwangler. A must have for any Beethoven listener. (By the way, the recordings are in mono, but who cares ? )

As great as this set undoubtedly is, it is surpassed by Furtwangler's wartime performances of Symphonies 3 - 7 and the Ninth, now available, stupendously well remastered, on a 4CD set from Music & Arts. The set also includes the wartime 1942 Berlin Ninth, an inspiring, frightening thing that to me is clearly the greatest single orchestral performance ever recorded--also available as a single CD from Music & Arts, whose CEDAR remastering is now the only way in which to hear it, superceding all previous releases. The sound on the Eroica and the Fifth in the 4CD set is nearly miraculous in its clarity, given the age and circumstances of the recordings.

Furtwangler's postwar Beethoven performances are more Olympian, measured and serene--the Pastorale on the EMI set is unbeatable (except for a rare live version from 1947), its noble Eroica is a revelation, and the Seventh and Fourth may have an edge on their more hyper wartime version--but in general the voltage of the wartime performances, in which the conductor was trying to maintain the height of true human culture in the midst of our history's ultimate nightmare, is unmatchable. I hope the circumstances will never be repeated anywhere, but the turn of that particular screw wrung from the greatest of all recorded conductors the highest reaches of his extraordinary art. Fans of this great artist will, of course, want this set too.

I can't add much to the superlatives already expressed below except to quote the one and only Maria Callas while listening to a recording of the 8th symphony in a taxi and immediately recognizing the interpreter, "Furtwangler was Beethoven." You are not likely to hear this type of interpretation again, fully romantic, fully integrated and fully Beethoven. Truly inspired readings from the soul of Furtwangler and Beethoven. This has been remastered with EMI's ART technology and released in Europe (CHS 567496-2). The sound is considerably better, especially in Nos. 2 & 8. You might find more critically acclaimed individual interpretations of the symphonies, but as a whole, this is very impressive. Enjoy!

This is the best music I have ever listened to. Soul-stirring, heavenly music. The music so touched my soul when I first listened to it - I cried. I listen to these symphonies everyday playing the CDs in their sequence one after another. Surely, like one reviewer I read before I bought these CDs said - "one can hear Beethoven" in these CDs.I keep thinking that this must be the way Beethoven wanted his symphonies to be played. I have two other sets of Beethoven's 9 symphonies conducted by two very famous conductors but these cannot compare with Furtwangler's version of the symphonies. I have not heard of Furtwangler before I scanned through Beethoven's music at Amazon.com. as he was a conductor in an earlier period. I feel blessed that somehow through Amazon.com.,I have been made aware of his version. I am now buying my second set of these CDs. The way I am carrying on playing these CDs everyday, I know that sometime they will wear out. I never want to be without them - they are a treasure.

I wonder why there has been no review for this box set of CD. It is the essential item for classical listeners, especially for BEETHOVEN Symphonies. If anybody listens these CDs, he may know that Karajan is just a imitation. Especially, this box contains the greatest performance of Symphony 9 which was approved to publish by Mrs. Furtwangler afer his death. You can feel and even breethe the Beethoven with this performance.

This must be the last Beethoven cycle that one should get(after trying Karajan and Bernstein and Bohm and .... otherwise you might not like others who are also good enough ); then only you can judge why this is the best. The sound quality is not as great as the others (sadly) and it is mono (who cares..!!) but any classical collection is incomplete without this. Particularly the ninth one is sublime.It tears everything apart,devastates the world,and without hope, without belief,reconstructs the world. A must have for anyone...