专辑简介

Beethoven has been a dominating presence in Daniel Barenboim's musical life, from his early years as a piano prodigy to his long-held international podium career. He recorded the piano sonatas twice and the concertos three times--as soloist with Otto Klemperer, as conductor accompanying Artur Rubinstein, and as conductor from the keyboard. When it came to tackling the nine Beethoven symphonies in toto, however, Barenboim bided his time. The results add up to one of the most commanding, insightful, and stimulating Beethoven cycles ever to be released. As a Beethovenian, Barenboim is very much an exponent of the German symphonic school, favoring weighty sonorities, expansive tempi, and full-throated dynamism. Well-known conductors as disparate as Böhm, Sanderling, Kletzki, Tennstedt, Walter, Bernstein, and Klemperer come out of this tradition, as does Wilhelm Furtwängler, whom Barenboim ardently admires.