Favorite Beethoven Symphony Recordings


OK, it’s one of Ludwigs anniversary years.  There must be over 200 complete Symphony Cycles, with seemingly dozens this year alone.  While most Classical listeners are bound to have several, we can’t possibly know them all.  Make a list of favorites of each work, try not to repeat a Conductor if possible.
1-Hogwood/AAM
2) Krips/LSO
3) Furtwangler/Vienna PO (1944)
4) Szell/Cleveland
5) Kleiber/VPO
6) Walter/Columbia SO
7) Solti/Chicago (1970s cycle)
8) Gardiner-Revolutionary Romantic etc. Orchestra 
9) Von Karajan/ Berlin PO (sixties)

mahler123

Showing 2 responses by rok2id

I realize this is silly, but I judge all cycles by the 9th.  If there is nothing unique about the 9th, it's ho-hum.

Cheers
Complete Cycle:
Herbert von Karajan -- Berlin -- 1963 / 1977
John Eliot Gardiner  --  Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique
Riccardo Chailly  --  Gewandhausorchester

9th:
Karl Bohm  --  Wiener  --  Norman, Domingo, Fassbaender, Berry
George Szell  --  Cleveland Orchestra  --  Robert Shaw, Choir Director

5&7:
Carlos Kleiber -- Wiener

Cheers