Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 / Overtures

MARBECKS STAFF PICK - BEST RECORDINGS 2008

"The eternal question with new Beethoven symphony cycles - is there room for another? When it's as good as this, absolutely. There's something of the art that conceals art about these performances. At first they can sound perhaps a touch generalised. But there are riches to be mined and they repay longer acquaintance. As with much of Immerseel's work, you are left with the words "life-affirming". This Belgian cycle is nevertheless a stimulating, exhilerating experience."
(Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice June 2008)

All Music Guide. 5/5
"Who would have believed Belgian fortepianist and conductor Jos van Immerseel had it in him to turn in an exciting set of Beethoven's symphonies and overtures, especially with a a period instrument chamber orchestra? But these are indeed very exciting recordings. Listen to the hunting horns in the Third's Trio or the charging trumpets in the Seventh's closing Allegro con brio. Listen to Immerseel mold the phrasing in the Second's Larghetto or coda of the Third's Marcia funebre - it's genuinely thrilling. In these performances, one gets a real sense of the warmth, humor, and compassion that mark the best Beethoven recordings. The recorded sound is immediate and translucent." - All Music Guide (***** performance/***** sound)

A new period-instrument recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies and most of the overtures by this celebrated ensemble. 'We know that Beethoven asked musicians very precise questions about the technical capacities of their instruments. So he knew exactly what he was doing when he pushed an instrument to the very limit of its possibilities. It's partly the great technical difficulty that makes his music so revolutionary, but also the dramatic character this element confers on the music (and this dramatisation is further emphasised if one respects contemporary pitch standards, which were high - at least 440, if not more). That's why it is so important to perform this music on period instruments..' Jos van Immerseel