CD Choice:Classical
Beethoven Complete Works Brilliant Classics 93553 (100 CDs) ****
Beethoven towers over classical music the way Shakespeare dominates English literature.
And now you can have him complete on 100 CDs in a foot of shelf space for under €100. Dutch label Brilliant Classics, which undercuts even Naxos's low prices, has pulled off this feat by licensing swathes of material from well-established labels rather than depend solely on its own recordings.
The symphonies come from the tonally refined Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under the rock-solid Kurt Masur; the string quartets from leading American group The Guarneri Quartet; the piano sonatas and concertos from that Viennese musical genius, Friedrich Gulda, with Alfred Brendel filling in most of the variations and minor piano works (the recordings come from the 1960s, when both pianists favoured Bösendorfer pianos).
The exceptional duo of Arthur Grumiaux and Clara Haskil provide the violin and piano sonatas, and the opera Fidelio (under Christioph von Dohnányi) is supplemented by its earlier incarnation as Leonore (under Herbert Blomstedt). Colin Davis handles the Masses, and the songs are given over to mellifluous tenor Peter Schreier. Among major strands, only the romanticised piano trios from the Borodin Trio and the undercharacterised Zurich String Trio in the string trios and ensembles seriously disappoint.
One fascination of these huge surveys is the rarely heard stuff. Why is Beethoven's music for wind instruments so neglected? Why did he ever trouble to write the two reduced-Shakespeare-like Preludes, Op 39, taking the listener briefly through all the keys? And what was he up to arranging his wonderful Violin Concerto as a plainer-than- plain piano concerto?
The label has added to the attractiveness of the enterprise by including, over 15 discs, a survey of great historical performances, including a second complete Fidelio and an unforgettable Choral Symphony under Wilhelm Furtwängler. Texts come on a CD-ROM, but no translations. www.dreamlines.ie
