In 2014 the Canadian conductor (and pianist) Yannick Nézet-Séguin (*1975) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (founded in 1981) released their recordings of the Schumann symphonies, in 2017 followed their interpretations of Mendelssohn symphonies. Below follows my article about the 5-CD-box Beethoven: The Symphonies with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting again the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. It was recorded in July 2021 at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2022. Performance material: Breitkopf & Härtel. Accept cookies — we receive a commission; price unchanged — and order the five Audio-CDs, MP3 or stream the music from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.
These are the first recordings based on the New Beethoven Complete Edition. The booklet contains valuable information by Beate Angelika Kraus regarding Beethoven’s Ninth. She is the editor of the new critical edition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, published as part of the new complete critical edition of Beethoven’s works, written under the aegis of the Beethoven-Haus Archiv in Bonn, published in 2020 – the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.
Photo of the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Photograph copyright © Hans van der Woerd/Deutsche Grammophon, DG.
Ludwig van Beethoven (Bonn 1770-1827 Vienna) wrote his first two symphonies – op. 21 and op. 36 – in the years 1799–1800 and 1800–02 respectively. He composed his Third Symphony (“Eroica”) op. 55 from the autumn of 1802 until 1803, prompting speculation about the significance of having a Marcia funebre as its second movement. Beethoven wrote his Fourth Symphony op. 60 from 1804 to 1806. He composed his Fifth Symphony op. 67 – with interruptions – between 1804 and 1807. He began work on the “Pastoral” Sixth Symphony op. 68, his first to comprise five movements, in the summer of 1807. The Seventh Symphony op. 92, was composed between the autumn of 1811 and 1812, and the much more compact Eighth Symphony op. 93 began life as a piano concerto in 1812. Subsequently, Ludwig van Beethoven planned both a Ninth and a Tenth Symphony but managed to complete only the first.
Beate Angelika Kraus presents the new research on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony op. 125. It was performed for the first time in Vienna on May 7, 1824. It consists of a multi-sectional final movement that introduces the human voice and, with it, words into the world of instrumental music. The symphony as a whole has become internationally popular as an idealistic vision of a world in which the whole of humanity is united in a spirit of brotherhood.
Beate Angelika Kraus offers a like behind the genesis this monument of classical music. Beethoven worked on his Ninth Symphony over a period of around a dozen years. The earliest sketches date from 1815, and on March 18, 1827 – only a week before his death – he wrote a letter to London with a list of metronome markings. On June 9, 1817 the Philharmonic Society of London had commissioned Beethoven two symphonies, at the same time inviting him to London for their first performances. The Society must have been surprised when in 1824 Beethoven finally sent them an unusual vocal symphony for a fee of £50, to say nothing of the fact that its words were in German.
Beate Angelika Kraus writes that, for the first performance in London on March 21, 1825 no expense was spared, but the the words were sung in Italian. This episode from the performance history of the Ninth Symphony is far from being exceptional. Since Beethoven provided authorized copies of his score tailored to the needs of the individual performances, several versions exist: the score used for the first performance in Vienna in 1824, copies of the full score prepared for London and for the Lower Rhine Music Festival in Aachen in 1825, the copy used by the engraver who worked on the first edition as well as a dedicatory copy sent to King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in September 1826.
The editor Beate Angelika Kraus studied all the surviving material, comparing the various versions and consulting documents such as letters, lists of corrections, Beethoven’s Conversation Books and the evidence left by contemporaries.
The new critical edition of the Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony tried to find what represents the composer’s last word on the subject. Many new details were found. Among the innovations that are plain to hear are the changes to the part written for an instrument that was still relatively new in Beethoven’s day, the contrabassoon. Initially its role was undertaken exclusively by double-bass players but in the course of Beethoven’s work on the score of his Ninth Symphony, its role was gradually expanded and modified. In the autograph score – Beethoven’s working manuscript – it has only a brief entry in the Allegro assai vivace. alla Marcia, where it is heard alongside the triangle, cymbals and bass drum in the tradition of Harmoniemusik (music for wind instruments). But in later sources this low bass instrument is already heard at the start of the movement while remaining silent at the end of the work. Today’s praxis differs, and yet there are audible innovations: the contrabassoon now joins in when the baritone soloist first sings the melody associated with the theme of joy.
Beate Angelika Kraus underlines that, in the march that accompanies the words “Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen”, audiences are accustomed to hearing the contrabassoon underpinning the other instruments in its lowest register. This is a passage that is generally felt to be a parody or even thought of as vulgar. But now – and in the present recording – it is heard an octave higher, where it fits far more harmoniously into the overall sound. By the end, the contrabassoon does more than just provide a colla parte reinforcement for the voices of thes econd bassoon or string bass line but is given a voice of its own and plays a role well suited to its capabilities.
Beate Angelika Kraus was struck first of all by a marginal note in Beethoven’s handwriting that he added to the copy of the score that he sent to the engraver at B. Schott’s Söhne in Mainz. This note reads: “from here on see the ContraFag. in the enclosure”. The editor remarks that no such enclosure from Beethoven has survived, but its existence can be inferred. She adds that it was also possible to draw a comparison with the original editions of the full score and parts that appeared in 1826, from which it is clear that the contrabassoon part is not the same in the full score as it is in the printed part. She concludes that evidently the“enclosure” was used in one instance but not in the other. This was only the start of an editorial quest. In this specific case six different layers of the contrabassoon part were eventually uncovered.
Beate Angelika Kraus writes that, for singers, too, the new edition contains a number of features that will be new to them. First and foremost they will be struck by a special way in which the sung text is underlaid beneath the notes. For the first time in the work’s publishing history this takes account of Beethoven’s own ideas. With vowels that Beethoven lengthened when they are sung, the final consonants are placed after the last note, so that the singer’s articulation is integrated into the word’s appearance on the printed page.
Until now, Beethoven was considered to be relatively unconcerned with singing. The new edition mentions that Beethoven explained in a letter in 1824 to his still inexperienced copyist Peter Paul Gläser how the word “Sa – – – nft”, for example, should be notated in the score. Moreover, the structure of the verse should also be visible from the score’s actual appearance, with Beethoven making corrections to ensure that there was a capital letter at the start of each line of verse.
According to Beate Angelika Kraus, details like these cannot be heard, but they reflect the way in which Beethoven thought and are important in terms of the work as a notated text.
She stresses that Beethoven’s compositional appropriation of Schiller’s poem “Ode To Joy”, which had first appeared in print in 1786, is equally fascinating. This was the first time that anyone has examined the question of the astonishingl ylarge number of editions and settings that existed by the time that Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony. Textual comparisons suggest that he used an edition of the poem that was published by the Vienna publisher Doll in 1810 when he wrote the words of the final movement into his score.
Beate Angelika Kraus underlines that the new edition includes chapters on Beethoven’s metronome markings, on the repeats in the second movement (it is now only 559 bars long, not 954), on Beethoven’s search for a title for the work and, finally, on his quest for a suitable dedicatee.
Therefore, she concludes, the new complete edition of Beethoven’s works is far more than just a new edition of the score. It allows new insights not only into Beethoven’s workshop, which employed numerous copyists, but also into his surroundings and into the Ninth’s early performance history.
Beethoven: The Symphonies with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, consisting of 60 musicians, if I counted correctly. 5-CD-box, Deutsche Grammophon, 2022. Accept cookies — we receive a commission; price unchanged — and order the five Audio-CDs, MP3 or stream the music from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.
Beethoven’s First Symphony in C major op. 21 may sound relatively tame today, at the time of its premiere in Vienna in 1800, the composition, influenced by Haydn and Mozart, was celebrated by both the audience and critics. The Second Symphony in D major op. 36 still shows the influence of Haydn and Mozart, but already marks a departure towards Beethoven’s unmistakable style. The interpretation by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe sounds fresh, light, refined and sharp, maybe here and there somewhat cautious in comparison with some other, less balanced recordings.
The Third Symphony, the famous Eroica, is rightly considered one of Beethoven’s best compositions. Originally dedicated to Napoleon, Beethoven withdrew the dedication after the French leader crowned himself emperor. Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe show themselves up to the job in this groundbreaking, revolutionary and popular work. In comparison with some other, more radical performances by other orchestras and conductors, this recording may be considered stirring, notably in the rousing finale, but still well-balanced.
Although one of Beethoven’s lesser known works, especially the interpretation of the first movement of the Fourth Symphony by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is convincing. Their recording proves that this symphony is underrated.
The Fifth Symphony in C minor op. 67, called the Fate Symphony (Schicksalssymphony) is another highlight of Beethoven’s body of work. This holds true for the recording on this 5-CD box set. The music captivates us from the very beginning, that is the first mouvement’s world-famous four-note signature motif. The interpretation is brisk, not grandios.
At the same time, Beethoven embarked on the composition of the Sixth Symphony in F major op. 68, called the Pastoral Symphony. It is one of the composer’s few explicitly programmatic works, inspired inspired by his walks through the rural surroundings of Vienna. In the five movements we can hear fun gatherings of country folk, shepherd songs, a shepherd playing the pipe, birds singing, the flow of a stream as well as a thunderstorm with thunder and lightning. The first mouvement is cheerful and happy – and so is the interpretation by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
The Seventh Symphony in A major op. 92 returns to the four-movement form. The premiere took place in Vienna on December 8, 1813 and included Beethoven’s orchestral work Wellington’s Victory, celebrating the victory over Napoleon’s troops. The Seventh Symphony as well is interpreted as another statement by the composer regarding Napoleon. The 5-CD-Box rendition is powerful, but not bombastic.
The Eight in F major op. 93 is Beethoven’s shortest symphony — it takes Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe roughly 26 minutes and 30 seconds to play it. Beethoven composed it in 1812 in just four months, just after he had finished the Seventh. It premiered together with the more popular Seventh. The composer himself thought the Eight better than the Seventh. I must admit that this symphony is not among my favorites — and neither is the recording on the 5-CD-Box.
The famous Ninth Symphony in D minor op. 125, mentioned in detail at the beginning of this article, is a choral symphony containing the famous Ode to Joy as its fourth mouvement, on the 5-CD-Box performed with the help of Siobhan Stagg, Ekaterina Gubanova, Werner Güra, Florian Boesch and the French chamber choir Chœur de chambre Accentus, recorded at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in 2021.
The Ninth is rightly considered one of Beethoven’s masterpieces. The rediscovered contrabassoon (Kontrafagott) part is used for the first time in this recording by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The Ninth is the only symphony of the New Beethoven Complete Edition which offers substantial changes in comparison with the Bärenreiter/Jonathan Del Mar editions, which previously were largely considered the gold standard. Even if you should not like the 5-CD-Box performance under the leadership of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the revised score opens the door to new interpretations of these iconic pieces of classical music.
For some listeners, these recordings may be too pale, too bland. I would say that they offer a fresh perspective. It remains to be seen what other conductors and orchestras will make of the new critical edition of Beethoven’s symphony scores.
Beethoven: The Symphonies with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. 5-CD-box, Deutsche Grammophon, 2022. Performance material: Breitkopf & Härtel. Accept cookies — we receive a commission; price unchanged — and order the five Audio-CDs, MP3 or stream the music from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.
Regarding Yannick Nézet-Séguin check also our 2023 article about his Rachmaninoff recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as the Trifonov Destination Rachmaninov review.
Photo of the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Photograph copyright © Harald Hoffmann/Deutsche Grammophon, DG.
For a better reading, quotations and partial quotations from the 5-CD-box booklet in this classical music review of Beethoven: The Symphonies are not put between quotation marks.
Classical music review added on September 8, 2025 at 20:48 German time.
