Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Herbert von Karajan :: Mad About Beethoven

Actually, this is Mad About Beethoven's Symphonies

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 09/15/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Mad About Beethoven" is one of the strangest musical collections I have come across because of the nine musical selections, only one--The Rondo from the Violin Concerto in D--is NOT from one of Beethoven's Symphonies. So you do not get "Moonlight Sonata" or "Fur Elise," but you do get the first and fourth movements from the 5th Symphony and the second and fourth movements from the 9th (Choral) Symphony. There are three selections from the 6th (Pastoral) Symphony and I was surprised that instead of the opening movement of the 3rd (Eroica) Symphony they decided to include the final movement from the 7th Symphony. They must have been mad. All of the symphonic pieces are done by the Berlin Philharmonic Symphony under conductor Herbert von Karajan. I have always had a preference for Bernstein's take on Beethoven, so these are not my favorite performances of Beethoven in my collection. But I must admit I am intrigued by the idea of offering what amounts to a sampler of Beethoven's symphonies. It is just that with this collection you are still missing things like the 5th Piano Concerto (Emperor), so this is an interesting start, but only a start."