Arturo Toscanini Beethoven LPs

Might I suggest that if you admire the Toscanini/NBC Beethoven symphonies, you will probably also admire the Szell/Cleveland set, which offers first-rate performances in stereo sound which, if a long way from state-of-the-art, is at least a great improvement over the old monaural Toscanini/NBC set. Finally, I'd like to recommend a thoroughly modern, recent set that does have truly excellent sound that will warm the heart of any audiophile: the Daniel Barenboim/Berliner Staatskapelle set on Teldec. I'm going to quote the assessment by the Beethoven expert in Third Ear: Classical Music: The Listener's Companion (ed. A. J. Morin, 2002): "Barenboim is one of the newest entrants in the symphonies sweepstakes, and the effort is superb. Using the Berliner Staatskapelle, he has pulled off the near impossible and come as close as anyone to giving us the definitive set. The dark, mahogany burnish of these readings is the ultimate in finely graded, magnificently rich and robust sound. . . . I will boldly say it: this is the best single collection of the nine symphonies on the market today." I agree. I've been an audiophile and record collector for 40 years, and have many Beethoven symphony recordings; if I could keep only one set of the nine, it would be this one. Happy listening.

Hi Marc,

If you've gone around the curve with Texasdave's recommendation of Szell/CSO, a bit further on you'll also find a nice sounding/well-performed set with Solti/LSO, London ffrr. The 9th in this set is stand alone glorious.(Admittedly partial to most Solti/London recordings.)

- Mario

Since I am also a Toscanini fan,may I suggest BBC Beethoven
Pastoral (1937 version) on: Pathe Marconi 322 2 c051-03854