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Essential Beethoven | 
 enlarge | Creators: Hans Sotin, Martti Talvela, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Alceo Galliera, Antal Dorati, Bernard Haitink, Colin Davis, Georg Solti, George Szell, Hans Schmidt-isserstedt, Neville Marriner, Piero Gamba, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Zubin Mehta, Berliner Philharmoniker Oktet, Quartetto Italiano, Marilyn Horne, Academy Of St. Martin-in-the-fields, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra
Label: Decca
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $6.49
You Save: $5.49 (46%)
New (40) Used (11) from $6.49
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 46696
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 11.7 x 5.6 x 0.4
MPN: 468530
UPC: 028946853023
EAN: 0028946853023
ASIN: B00005KBJQ
Release Date: June 12, 2001
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Allegro con brio | | • | Allegretto | | • | No. 1, Adagio sostenuto | | • | No. 3, Allegretto | | • | No. 5, Scherzo: Allegro molto | | • | No. 2, Largo | | • | No. 4, Allegro vivace | | • | Overture | | • | No. 3, Rondo: Allegro |
Disc 2
| • | No. 2, Adagio un poco mosso | | • | No. 5, Allegretto | | • | No. 3, Rondo: Molto Allegro | | • | No. 2, Adagio cantabile | | • | No. 5, Cavatina: Adagio molto espressivo | | • | No. 4, Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo | | • | No. 11 | | • | No. 3, Presto agitato | | • | Mir ist so wunderbar (Quartet) | | • | O welche Lust (Prisoners' Chorus) | | • | Choral Finale (excerpt) |
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| Customer Reviews:
 not the best September 24, 2008
Stacy Scott (Michigan)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
i went searching for a Beethoven CD because i was lucky enough to find this wonderful Mozart one. But this Beethoven CD doesnt have the best performances. The most popular pieces are apparently played by beginners because the notes sound disjointed, as if they arent playing together but playing each piece separately, which is not what an orchestra is supposed to sound like....otherwise we wouldnt call it an orchestra....it would be an elementary school meddley! But anyway, the less popular pieces are boring, like the compilers didnt feel like paying for the good stuff. Overall, im disappointed with this CD. The picture is cool though.....(insert glaring smiley here).
Excellent sample October 25, 2005
Delmas S. Overby (North Carolina)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This two disc set is a good sampler of Beethoven; I had forgotten how inspiring his work could be. This set has motivated me to order all three of the Deutch Grammaphone two disc which together include all 9 of Beethoven's symphonies.
Some of the Best September 11, 2005
Maestro Marc
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Some of these songs are the best that I've heard. I also enjoy the fact that this album provides the ENTIRE movement or selection, unlike some of the other albums that I've heard that only play for a little bit of the song. One example is Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major Second Movement, this movement is one of my favorites to begin with and hearing it so smoothly and masterfully recorded made my heart sing the first time I heard this all the way to end (the other recordings usually stop after the major key shift after the first theme). Also the Egmont Overture is one of the best full versions that I've had the pleasure of enjoying performed this well. The Moonlight Sonata First Movement I found to be nice, but there are better versions out there. For those people just looking for a nice collection of Beethoven songs that are well recorded and well performed, I stronly suggest that you purchase this album.
Storms March 9, 2005
Christopher S. Loucks (Colorado Front Range)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
Classical music compilations are extremely difficult to review. You are always fighting with someone else's opinion of what is "Best of" material. And why should we buy selections when we could buy the entire pieces and hear them played as the composers intended?
A quick answer would be simple: we simply cannot afford to purchase every single piece by every single composer we love. And if the buyer is familiar with the music, he or she would perhaps only want the famous selections everyone knows. In my case, I am particularly picky with recordings and don't have the time to meddle with libraries or going to stores that offer listening stations. Recordings vary greatly and so does playing ability. So why did I go with Essential Beethoven?
It is released with Decca, one of the finest classical music companies out there. You are guaranteed no gimmick or inexpensively recorded tracks on this compilation. Essential B. also has a wider selection than other compilations I looked at. For once, there isn't a movement to be found from the Fifth Symphony. If that's all you want to buy, look elsewhere. Essential B. has pieces I was not familiar with, so here I am listening to it.
Regrettably, there are three distinct issues with this recording, and I want to get them out of the way. 1. Fuer Elise is atrociously boring to listen to. As a pianist, it is fun to play and almost required learning for the beginner. It should've been dropped. 2. Piano Concerto No. 5 is missing the third movement. It is common to drop the first movement here, but the second and third movements are programmatically tied, providing some of the most emotionally charged music ever put down on lined paper. Also, this rendition of the concerto is less than inspiring and I regret that it is the famous Ashkenazy playing this version. There is almost no life in the playing. 3. The remastering could've been better. The listener will enjoy the loud and boisterous pieces, but the quieter parts, and even the soft piano solos, will have him straining his ears to the point of exasperation. Because of this, I recommend listening on headphones or in a place where you can turn the volume up a little more than usual.
That aside, the rest of the tracks are well recorded, extremely well played, and varied enough to quench even the most learned ears. Decca has included pieces conducted by Sir Georg Solti, one of the greatest conducters in my opinion. (Another "collection" solely conducted by Solti is the "Immortal Beloved" soundtrack.) The orchestral pieces are lush and the range is dynamic. (A little too dynamic, like I stated above, in some areas.) The inclusion of movement IV from Symphony no. 8 pleases me, as I feel this is the least appreciated symphony, overshadowed by Symphony no. 9
The piano pieces are some of the best renditions I've heard. I own all of Ashkenazy's sonatas, so it was nice to hear a movement from "The Tempest" played by Stephen Kovacevich, who plays with fierce determination. Selections from B's piano concertos are fantastic and have prompted me to delve further into listening to more concertos from him. The Rondo from Piano Concerto No. 2, played by Radu Lupu, is one of the most upbeat and wonderfully played pieces here.
To round things off nicely is a movement from the Violin Sonata No. 5, played by the one and only Itzhak Perlman! The piano is caressed by Mr. Ashkenazy himself, and he does so lovingly. You will also find pieces from a string quartet, a violin Romance (and orchestra), and one overture: the "Egmont." I'm not a huge fan of this rendition either, but that's probably because I've heard the Egmont a thousand times.
A huge bonus with this collection are the three choral selections at the end, two of which are from "Fidelio," an opera I've yet to hear in its entirety. The Prisoners' Chorus is beautiful. The introduction sounds very much like a major contribution to Charles Ives's 1906 piece "The Unanswered Question." The compilation ends with Symphony No. 9's finale, but unfortunately, it is a horribly edited excerpt, and mixed extremely hot. I have to turn my volume down everytime this comes on.
I would like to make a little note about the art design, however. Credit here is given to Mark Millington, who did a fine job blending black & white photos of storm clouds, an inspiring sculpture, and blackletter-styled fonts. The CDs themselves are a contrasting bright orange. As a sucker for marketing, I would've plunked money down for this compilation just for the art!
 Wonderful selections November 8, 2003
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
My kids and I have really enjoyed this CD. This is a great collection of music with high quality performances.
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