Penguin Rosettes, Beethoven (composer)

an essential recommendation for any collection. These are performances which seem to present a Beethoven 'for the ages', a distillation of a long interpretative tradition, without concern for... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2012More…

In Carlos Kleiber's hands the first movement of the Fifth is electrifying, yet still has a underlying hushed intensity...In the Seventh the symphonic argument never yields to the charm of the... — Penguin Guide, 2011 editionMore…

…there were times when I genuinely wondered if even five stars wasn't insulting to playing of such glorious playful penetration. …the next minute Pletnev does something that makes you howl... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2007, 3 out of 5 starsMore…

There have never been any doubts about these performances. The horn playing in the Sinfoniaconcertante is unsurpassable and in the quintets Gieseking's lightness and his clarity and sense of... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…

Here is the first night of Otto Klemperer's legendary 1961 Fidelio, from the Royal Opera House, to challenge his noted studio set from a year later.This confirms the Achilles' heel of Walter... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…