Beethoven Symphonies 1-9 and Missa solemnis

Beethoven Symphonies 1-9 and Missa solemnis box set. Christian Thielemann conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker in all nine Beethoven symphonies and the Staatskapelle Dresden for the Missa solemnis. Also features the Coriolan Overture and the Egmont Overture. Includes the “Discovering Symphonies” series of hour-long documentaries on each symphony with Joachim Kaiser and Christian Thielemann.

Featured performers are Annette Dasch (soprano), Mihoko Fujimura (mezzo-soprano), Piotr Beczala (tenor), Georg Zeppenfeld (bass), Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano), Krassimira Stoyanova (soprano), Michael Schade (tenor), and Franz-Josef Selig (bass).

The four discs in this box set have been released previously as individual titles. Click on the links below to see in-depth discussions on each:

Beethoven Symphonies 1-3. Released 2010. Grade: B-
Beethoven Symphonies 4-6. Released 2010. Grade: C
Beethoven Symphonies 7-9. Released 2010. Grade: B-
Beethoven Missa solemnis. Released 2011. Grade: C+

Released 2020, symphony discs have 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound and Missa solemnis disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio Sound. Grade: C+

We don’t try to keep up with prices on this website, but shop around. This box with the Missa solemnis may be a bargain!

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.