Beethoven: Complete Symphonies & Barry: Viola and Piano Concerti [BOX SET]

To mark their 30th Anniversary, Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Ades are releasing their acclaimed Beeethoven and Barry cycle as a box set. The works were recorded between 2017 and 2019 at Barbican Hall, London and Theatre Royal, Brighton.

“This collection is the fruit of two parallel passions. After twenty years of performing and often premiering Gerald Barry’s works, I was frantic to record as much of it as possible. I had also loved working on Beethoven Symphonies with Britten Sinfonia, and suddenly an idea was born: why not dare the two firebrands to join hands? As soon as this idea took hold, everything fell into place. I believe Ludwig van Beethoven must be treated as a living composer, and I find Gerald’s music to be entirely classic. So the two complement each other ideally.” – Thomas Adès

“Tom Adès decided on this pairing. It startled me. The first record I bought when I was about 13 was Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. We didn’t have a record player so all I could do was study the cover and advertisements on the back. I could look and see but not hear. I would take the record out and smell it. I used my nose as a stylus going round and round.” – Gerald Barry CD 1

 “I think that his approach to Beethoven is all about Adès the composer meeting Beethoven the composer, about that amazing startling invention, it looks afresh you know at how could a human being actually come up with these extraordinary ideas and that’s what comes over in all of the Beethoven symphonies for me in this recording” – BBC Radio 3 – Record Review

“If any argument was needed for the orchestra’s artistic merit, it is in this Beethoven collection…the heart of this seven-hour set is the symphonies, which stand out in a crowded field for being so thoroughly, decisively opinionated…You find yourself compelled by Adès…impeccable balance throughout; the dignified restraint of his “Eroica”; the unruliness of his Seventh’s finale, exactly the bacchic romp on the verge of derailment that it should be…Above all, this is Beethoven that lives. The instruments breathe and crunch. The scores reveal themselves anew. In the hands of these players, they still surprise, after 200 years” – New York Times

“In all these live recordings, the engineers manage to give the best possible sound quality…Thomas Adès’ Beethoven cycle stands along with the finest available and betters many cycles by more celebrated ensembles. It will prove a memorable addition to anyone’s collection” – Musicweb International