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17.10.17

A Survey of Beethoven Symphony Cycles: Alphabetical Index

by jfl | Tuesday, October 17, 2017



An Index of ionarts Discographies


The Beethoven Symphonies
A Survey of Complete* Recordings



This is the alphabetical listing of every Beethoven Symphony Cycle that has been recorded. At least that's the ambition. This will go together with a much more detailed survey that will be created bit-by-bit over the next weeks. That survey is referred to as the "main page" below. The style has yet to be determined - whether similar to the piano sonata survey or the string quartet survey or the previous symphony surveys (Sibelius, Dvořák, DSCH) or in a new format altogether. On that or those main page(s), the recordings are (going to be) listed in chronological order. The ionarts-logo under "QuickLinks" takes you to the appropriate page where the releases and their editions are presented in greater detail - when the relevant pages are up. (Notice will be given on this page when that is the case.) The flags take you to the respective Amazon page; the global logo takes you to the relevant Amazon listing in your (browsing-) country. Those links are already active. Amazon links to alternate versions of the same recording (or lists with links to the individual recordings where no set is available) will be found on the main respective main page. Cycles with multiple conductors can be found under V for "Various". At the bottom of the table, you will find the recordings of the Liszt piano transcriptions of the Beethoven Symphonies. Recommendations you will find on the main page. *A few cycles are not entirely complete or have not yet been finished but are underway or were never thought of as integrals, but cobbled together after the fact. Where that is the case, mention has been made on the main page.

Ed. 10-07-18: I have found and added a cycle by the Des Moines Symphony.

Ed.: Thanks to Hiro Miyashita, Dennis Bade & Christoph Schlüren for helpful corrections, hinters, additions, and links! Celibidache, Matacic, Weil, Frühbeck de Burgos, P.Jordan and a few other overlooked cycles have been added.

Ed.: I have found cycles by Rögner and Yamada and will add them soon.

Conductor Orchestra Label(s) QuickLinks
Claudio Abbado I (Vienna) WPh DG
II (Berlin) BPh DG
IIIa (Rome) BPh DG
IIIb (video) BPh EuroArts
Gerd Albrecht Yomiuri Nippon Exton
Ernest Ansermet Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Decca
Giovanni Antonini Basel CO Sony*
Takashi Asahina I Osaka PO Green Door NA?
II Osaka PO JVC NA
III Osaka PO JVC
IV (SACD) New Japan Philharmonic fontec
V Osaka PO Canyon
VI (CD & DVD) Osaka PO Canyon NA?
VII (SACD) Osaka PO Exton
Vladimir Ashkenazy (SACD) NHK SO Tokyo Exton
Walter Attanasi Camerata Cassovia, Slovak RSO Classic Art? NA
Daniel Barenboim I Staatskapelle Berlin Teldec/
Warner
II (CD & DVD) E-W-Divan DG
Rudolf Barshai [No Ninth] Moscow CO Melodiya
Enrique Bátiz [NCR] Mexican State SO OSEM NA
Leonard Bernstein I (Sony) NYP CBS/Sony
II (DG) WPh DG
Herbert Blomstedt I Staatskapelle Dresden Berlin Classics
II Leipzig Gewandhaus Accent
Stefan Blunier Beethoven Orchestra Bonn MDG
Karl Böhm WPh DG
Douglas Boyd Manchester Camerata Avie
Frans Brüggen I O.18th.Ct. Philips
II (SACD) O.18th.Ct. Glossa
Yondani Butt LSO Nimbus
Sylvain Cambreling SWR SO BB/F Glor
Sergiu Celibidache Munich MPhil EMI / Warner
Riccardo Chailly Leipzig Gewandhaus Decca
Myung-Whun Chung Tokyo PO IMX
André Cluytens BPh EMI/Erato
Maximianno Cobra [sampled orchestra] Vienna Symphonic Library CD Baby
Thomas Dausgaard Swedish CO Simax IND.
Colin Davis Staatskapelle Dresden Philips/
Newton
Christoph v Dohnányi Cleveland Orchestra Telarc
Antal Dorati Royal PO DG
(WTVS Broadcast) Detroit Symphony ADS NA
Béla Drahos N.Esterházy Sinf. Naxos
Patrick Duval Marseille RPO Geode [oop]
Vladimir Fedoseyev Moscow TRSO Relief
János Ferencsik Hungarian St.O. Hungaroton
Ádám Fischer Danish ChO Naxos
Iván Fischer I (Video) RCO RCO Live
Budapest FO Channel TBF
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos DVD & Blu-ray Danish NSO Dacapo
Wilhelm Furtwängler I WPh, Stockholm PO, Bayreuth FO EMI
II BPh, WPh, Philharmonia Andromeda
III BPh, WPh, Stuttgart RSO Memories
John Eliot Gardiner I OR&R Archiv
II live OR&R SDG TBF
Ruben Gazarian Württemberg CO Heilbronn Bayer
George Georgescu Bucharest St.PO Electrecord
Michael Gielen I SWF SO BB/F EMI
II SWF SO BB/F Hänssler
1.5 SWR Orchestras SWR Music
Carlo Maria Giulini 1-8 + 9 La Scala +LSO Sony +EMI
Joseph Giunta Des Moines Symphony self-published
Roy Goodman The Hanover Band Nimbus
Bernard Haitink I LPO Philips
II RCO Philips
III (SACD) LSO LSO Live
Nikolaus Harnoncourt COE Teldec
Philippe Herreweghe (SACD) Royal Flemish PO PentaTone
Richard Hickox Northern Sinfonia ASV
Christopher Hogwood AAM L'Oiseau-Lyre
Norichika Iimori WPh Reutlingen Exton
Taijiro Iimori I Tokyo City PO fontec
II Tokyo City PO fontec
Jos van Immerseel Anima Eterna Zig-Zag / Alpha
Hiroyuki Iwaki I NHK SO Vox/Denon
II OE Kanazawa Asahi Shimbun
III Marathon NHK SO (?) Avex
Marek Janowski WDR SO Pentatone NA
Mariss Jansons CD BRSO BR Klassik
(Video) BRSO Arthaus
Paavo Järvi SACD German CPO Bremen RCA
(Video) German CPO Bremen Sony DVDs
Eugen Jochum "0" BPh, Hamburg Phil Memories NA?
I BPh, BRSO DG
II RCO Philips
III LSO EMI / Disky
Georg Ludwig Jochum Chile SO Ercilla NA
Philippe Jordan Paris: DVD / Blu-ray O.de l'Opéra national de Paris ArtHaus Musik
Vienna: CD VSO VSO
Jansung & Vakhtang Kakhidze Tblisi SO Unlimited Classics NA
Herbert von Karajan I Philharmonia EMI
II "63" BPh DG
Japan "66" BPh King Intl/DG
Video BPh Unitel/DG
III "77" BPh DG
Japan "77" BPh Tokyo FM
IV "80's" BPh DG
Telemondia / Legacy BPh Sony DVD
Herbert Kegel Dresden PO Eterna/
Capriccio
Joseph Keilberth [No Ninth] Hamburg Phil / Bamberg / BPh Telefunken
Rudolf Kempe Munich Phil EMI
Seikyo Kim OE Kanazawa Avex NA
Otto Klemperer Studio Philharmonia EMI
Vienna Philharmonia Music & Arts
Paul Kletzki Czech PO Supraphon
Kenichiro Kobayashi XXX Czech PO Exton NA
Franz Konwitschny Gewandhaus Eterna
Kazimierz Kord Warsaw Philharmonic Accord NA
Josef Krips LSO Everest (et al)
Emmanuel Krivine Le Chambre Phil. naïve
Rafael Kubelik "Intl." -9- DG / Pentatone
Gustav Kuhn Haydn Orchestra Bolzano & Trento col legno
Rene Leibowitz Reader's Digest RPO Chesky/ Scribendum
Erich Leinsdorf Boston SO RCA
Alain Lombard ONd Bordeaux Aquitaine Forlane NA
Peter Maag Padua & Veneto Orchestra Arts
Lorin Maazel I Cleveland CBS/Sony
II BRSO BR Klassik* NA
Charles Mackerras I Royal Liverpool PO CfP
II Scottish CO/Philharm. Hyperion
Neville Marriner ASMF Philips NA
Kurt Masur I Analog Leipzig Gewandhaus Philips
II Digital Leipzig Gewandhaus Philips
Lovro von Matacic RAI Orchestra Milan Altus
Willem Mengelberg 1940 RCO Philips
II RCO Telefunken
Yehudi Menuhin Sinfonia Varsovia IMG Records
Pierre Monteux WPh, LSO Decca
Wyn Morris LSO IMP/Pickwick*
Charles Munch Studio, incompl. Boston SO RCA
Authorized Bootleg live Boston SO + Memories
Riccardo Muti Philadelphia EMI / Warner
Kent Nagano OS Montréal Sony/ Analekta
John Nelson EO d Paris Ambroisie
Andris Nelsons Vienna Phil DG
Yannick Nézet-Séguin COE DG
Roger Norrington I London Classical Players EMI / Virgin
II SWR RSO Stuttgart Hänssler Classic
Gianandrea Noseda download BBC Philharmonic BBC NA
Ryusuke Numajiri Tokyo Mozart Players Exton NA
Eugene Ormandy Philadelphia Sony Japan
Tadaaki Oraka Sapporo SO fontec SACDs
Seiji Ozawa Saito Kinen Orchestra Philips
Mikhail Pletnev "DSCH" RNO DG
Antonino Polizzi Prague RSO, Budapest SO Harmonia Mundi
David Porcelijn Tasmanian SO ABC
Wojciech Rajski * Polish Chamber PO Tacet
Simon Rattle I WPh EMI / Warner
II BPh BPh
Fritz Reiner incompl. Chicago SO RCA et al.*
Kurt Sanderling Philharmonia HMV/EMI
Wolfgang Sawallisch RCO EMI
Hermann Scherchen Ia WStOpO, VSO, RPO Tahra NA
Ib VStOpO, RSO DG/Westminster
II O.d.Svizzera Italiana Arioso
Carl Schuricht O.d.l. Société des Concerts du Conservatoire EMI
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt WPh Decca
Lan Shui Copenhagen Phil Orchid Classics NA
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski Saarbrücken RSO Oehms
Georg Solti I Analog CSO Decca
II Digital CSO Decca
William Steinberg Pittsburgh SO Commmand / XXI
Otmar Suitner Staatskapelle Berlin Denon
George Szell Cleveland CBS / Sony
Ken Takaseki Century Orchestra Osaka Live Notes
Klaus Tennstedt various Memories NA
Christian Thielemann WPh Sony
Michael Tilson Thomas I ECO/O.St.Lukes CBS/Sony
II (TBF) SFSO SFSMedia
Arturo Toscanini 1939 NBC SO Music & Arts
II NBC SO RCA
Jean-Philippe Tremblay O.d.l. Francophonie Analekta
Robert Trevino SACD Malmö SO Ondine
Osmo Vänskä SACD Minnesota BIS
Various "Naxos Cycle" Zagreb Phil. / Czechoslovak RSO Naxos
Various "RPO Cycle" RPO RPO / Membran
Various "1950 Greats" Various XXI-21
Tamás Vásáry Budapest SO Hungaroton NA
Jan Willem de Vriend SACD Surround Netherlands SO Northstar
Bruno Walter mono NYPhil+ United Archives
stereo Columbia SO Columbia / Sony
Günter Wand NDR SO DHM/RCA
Bruno Weil Tafelmusik BO Tafelmusik
Felix Weingartner WPh, LPO, RPO HMV/EMI
Walter Weller incl. Sy.10 CBSO Chandos
Hugh Wolff Frankfurt RSO HR Musik
David Zinman Tonhalle Z. Arte Nova
Jaap van Zweden SACD R.O.The Hague Philips
PIANO
TRANSCRIPTIONS		 EDITION INSTRUMENT LABEL QUICKLINKS
Idil Biret Liszt Steinway IBA/EMI
Leslie Howard Liszt Steinway Hyperion
Cyprien Katsaris Liszt Mark Allen, Bechstein, Steinway Teldec
Yuri Martynov Liszt 1837 Erard, 1867 Blüthner Zig-Zag / Alpha TBF
Konstantin Scherbakov Liszt Steinway Naxos / Steinway
Various Liszt, #9 2PVPaul Badura-Skoda,
Michel Dalberto,
Jean-Louis Haguenauer,
Jean-Claude Pennetier,
Alain Planès,
Georges Pludermacher		 Harmonia Mundi
Various Liszt Gábor Csalog,
Adrienn Krausz,
Gyula Kiss,
Csaba Király		 Hungaroton










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15 comments:

Dennis Bade said...

Quite an effort! Looking forward to some of the specific recommendations.

I have spotted several minor typos and other adjustments you will want to make. Here's the listing:

CORRECTIONS
for the Beethoven Symphony Survey

Brüggen - No need for the “D.” in the orchestra name.
Duval - Orchestra should be Marseille, not Marsaille.
Gielen - Label should be Hänssler, not Hässler.
Goodman - It’s Hanover, not Hannover.
Kord - First name is Kazimierz, not Kazimir.
Leibowitz - The original label was Reader’s Digest; not sure about Musical Heritage.
Mengelberg - First name is Willem, not Willelm.
Menuhin - Orchestra is Varsovia, not Varsova.
Monteux - Most of the cycle is Decca, not Westminster. I would switch the two names.
Morris - First name is Wyn, not Wynne.
Munch - RCA is NOT a full cycle. No Sym. 2 or 4.
Ozawa - The word Orchestra is misspelled.
Reiner - As with Munch, NOT a complete cycle. 3 symphonies missing.
Sawallisch - Is NOT Philadelphia but Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Scherchen - Is better as V SOPO, not WSOPO, and the other ensemble is RPO not LSO.
Steinberg - Original label was Command.
Suitner - First name is Otmar, not Ottmar.
Tilson Thomas - NO hyphen in the name.
Vänskä - Should have umlauts on the last name, but NOT on Osmo.

Hope these are helpful.

Dennis Bade

October 13, 2017 7:08 PM
jfl said...

Wow, thanks so much, Dennis, for going through these with such a fine comb and fixing the sloppiness, that I allowed to let creep into this. That is wildly helpful.

October 14, 2017 2:23 AM
jfl said...

(Fortunately, most of the mishaps happened in the manual transfer from my Excel file, which is more exacting. There are some almost-complete cycles among these; incidentally: if one wanted to, one could cobble together a complete Reiner/Chicago cycle by substituting 2, 4, & 8 from WFMT & VAI tapes.)

October 14, 2017 2:30 AM
Dennis Bade said...

A few more!

Dennis

NEW CORRECTIONS
for the Beethoven Symphony Survey

Ansermet - ADD “la” in “…de la Suisse Romande”.
Brüggen - No need for the “D.” in the orchestra name. [SAME FIX in the Glossa entry.]
Celibidache - Should be Sergiu, not Sergieu.
Cluytens - André, not Andre.
Matacic - Lovro, not Loro.
Munch - RCA is NOT a full cycle. No Sym. 2 or 4.
[I really think this should be noted for the RCA set.]
Nagano - seems to me it should be either OS Montréal or Montreal SO.
Reiner - As with Munch, NOT a complete cycle. 3 symphonies missing.
Scherchen - Is better as V SOPO, not WSOPO, and the other ensemble is RPO, not LSO. [SAME FIX for the Westminster; I presume also for Tahra…??]
Suitner - Since there’s room to spell out Staatskapelle here, I suggest doing the same for listings above (Barenboim, Blomstedt, and Davis).
Walter - I would add “+ Philadelphia”.
In the artist list for the HM set of piano versions, Pennertier should be Pennetier.
As far as Vienna Philharmonic, I would rather see the listing as you have it for Abbado, not WPH.

October 18, 2017 10:14 PM
jfl said...

Thanks again. Fixes applied, except a few. Again, much more detail will be given in the proper overview, which I am working on. (Might take a month to do... it's taken me a solid day and a half just to get to the fourth conductor in.) That's where Walter's early set will have the Phillies mentioned for the sixth and such.

October 19, 2017 1:58 AM
Dennis Bade said...

Just a pair of new ones (I wrote them down but omitted them from the earlier updates)...


John Nelson - the label should be Ambroisie not Ambroise.
Támas Vásáry - his names are inverted (correct in Hungary, but not internationally)! He should be filed under Vásáry.

Dennis

October 20, 2017 1:38 AM
jfl said...

And thanks once more; changes made.

October 27, 2017 2:41 PM
Dennis Bade said...

Writing one more time about the set by Támas Vásáry.

I have found a link to Presto Classical, which has all six CDs available as downloads:

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/artists/2977/browse?size=10&view=large&page=3

I see you have MOVED the entry to be under "V" but the names are still backward. VÁSÁRY should be the second name and get the bold face!!

Dennis

November 07, 2017 12:01 AM
jfl said...

Ah, now I figured out what the problem was: There's a hidden line of code where the old line of Vasary (filed under "T") was, and I kept futzing around with that, rather than the displayed line at "V". Well, better late than never. Thanks for the persistence! Much appreciated.

November 29, 2017 9:19 AM
Anonymous said...

Amazing work - thanks so much! Do you by chance have an updated count of just how many recorded Beethoven symphony cycles there are?

July 29, 2020 1:19 PM
Anonymous said...

Will there ever be a complete review or ranking for these cycles?

December 14, 2020 2:08 PM
Hyeon said...

You may want to add Karajan;s 1966 Tokyo cycle too: https://www.ebay.com/itm/275152420261?epid=10037500283&hash=item40105cbda5:g:nF8AAOSwwlReuUWT

April 11, 2022 8:56 PM
jfl said...

Thanks for all the recent comments, suggestions, and the (much appreciated) praise!

The 1966 Karajan Cycle has been added (both to the list and my collection).

How many cycles are there? That's hard to say.

In my list, I count 212. But that includes the Liszt/Piano cycles and it includes MANY - but not all - incomplete cycles... those that I deemed worthy being counted, which is not exactly a clean measure.

June 30, 2022 4:38 AM
Anonymous said...

You may want to add:
Riccardo Muti, Filarmonica della Scala, 1997/1998,
Live recording: Teatro alla Scala di Milano, season 1997-98
Series of CDs, sold together with the newspaper "La Repubblica"
https://www.filarmonica.it/discografia
https://www.discogs.com/it/label/724129-Le-Nove-Sinfonie

Grazie
M.

August 19, 2022 6:17 AM
jfl said...

Thanks (a LOT), "M", for the Muti/della Scala tip!
Very helpful, indeed. That's the sort of thing one needs geeks (I mean that in the most endearing way) all over the globe for.
I'll get to it (eventually), I promise. (Even though I only got to read the comment now.)
J.

May 10, 2023 4:30 AM

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