TACET's Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1-9: First complete recording in TACET Real Surround Sound

I have over one hundred complete sets of the Beethoven symphonies.This one is outstanding and deserves much better currency than it has received. It has been reviewed favourably, mainly in the audiophile press but overall, I do not believe that its musical significance has been adequately represented.Of course, there are many traversals of the Beethoven symphonies both of complete sets and of individual performances that have justly stood the test the test of time, in some cases over many decades. This set deserves to join the company of those celebrated recordings.The elegance, subtlety, delicacy, transparency and colour in Beethoven is often missed or underplayed. Weingartner captures those qualities and so too Toscanini in many of his recordings. Rajski does the same. Beethoven did represent a departure from Haydn but it was one that was far from complete. I think that Rajski makes that point once again, as did Weingartner and Toscanini before him. Like them, he treats his woodwinds, brass and tympani on an equal footing with his strings. So his sound is not an homogenised mass but rather an integrated collaboration that results in colour and the revelation of important compositional detail.Rajski, aided by superb audio engineering, manages to convey an amazing range and gradation of dynamics. That is important from the point of view of demonstrating some of the complexity of Beethoven's scoring.Furtwangler was an absolute genius in capturing Beethoven's almost cosmological profundity. Rajski's readings are profound but his approach is rather different.These are very balanced interpretations that clearly have entailed very deep reflection on what Beethoven's music means. Weingartner, Toscanini, Furtwangler, Von Karajan (1962), Monteux, Leibowitz, Bernstein and others have been justly lauded. Rajski deserves to join the ranks of those who have had uniquely important things to say about Beethoven's symphonies.

Very enjoyable.

These masterpieces are performed extremely well, the recording and production is very well done, and it you have the equipment for the 5.1 (or 4.1 if you have great fronts and a so-so center, like me) it sounds like you are in the middle of the orchestra - I loved it.

Ich habe mir diese Blurays gekauft, weil ich vor allem die 5. und 9. Symphonie von Beethoven liebe. Doch leider ist die klangliche Qualität nicht besser als die guter CDs oder DVDs. Der sehr hohe Preis ist daher nicht gerechtfertigt. Laut Beschreibung wurden die einzelnen Instrumente so aufgenommen, dass sie ortbar wären ich habe eine gute 7.1 Anlage, aber die Ortbarkeit der Instrumente ist nicht besser als auf "normalen" Aufnahmen! Mir fehlt zum Teil sogar die Dynamik. Es gibt andere Aufnahmen, die diesbezüglich wesentlich besser sind. Am meisten enttäuscht hat mich der gesangliche Teil. Da fehlt es komplett an Dynamic. Die leisen und lauten Stellen sind zu dicht beieinander. Dann der Sänger hat einen starken Dialekt, das geht eigentlich auch nicht. Ich habe die "Ode an die Freude" schon von Japanern gehört, die es perfekt akzentfrei gesungen haben. Schade, Preis/Leistung passt nicht!