 Ce coffret réunit, sous le même label, les enregistrements parus séparément des symphonies et concertos gravés entre 2008 et 2016. Une somme menée à bien sous l’ère du chef d’orchestre Jan Willem de Vriend qui fut le directeur artistique de la formation entre 2006 et 2016. Le choix des solistes et des éditions témoigne d’un souci de clarté et de précision quant à l’interprétation. Certes, il s’agit d’instruments modernes, mais les néerlandais qui furent, depuis la seconde moitié du 20e siècle, à la pointe de l’interprétation "musicalement informée" offrent des lectures d’une grande sobriété. On aurait aimé, notamment dans les dernières symphonies, un engagement plus marqué ou des prises de risques plus importantes. C’est avant tout l’homogénéité des pupitres, la définition des équilibres qui prévalent. Les deux solistes principaux, le pianiste Hannes Minnaar et la violoniste Liza Ferschtman s’accordent parfaitement dans cette démarche qui s’en tient à des lectures "classiques" dans le prolongement des esthétiques de Haydn et de Mozart. Le lyrisme est ainsi contenu, les articulations bien ciselées jusque dans le Concerto pour violon et la Neuvième Symphonie. Bref, une solide intégrale qui ne bouleverse pas la discographie, mais à laquelle on peut revenir sans craindre la moindre faute de goût. (Jean Dandrésy) What you have in your hands is a box with which Challenge Classics intends to make its contribution to the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. It is a unique and completely original collection in the panorama of today's discography, as it contains the complete corpus of the symphonies, as well as all the works for (instrumental) soloist and orchestra, i.e. all the concertos: the five Concertos for piano and orchestra, the Violin Concerto and the Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra. These works are supplemented by two of Beethoven's other works for violin and orchestra, namely the Romances. This means that, apart from the overtures and some dances, this boxed set contains all of Beethoven's orchestral and symphonic production (purely instrumental, and therefore not including voices). In other words, you now have what musicologists, but above all the listeners around the world, have recognised for about two hundred years now as being one of (if not the) highest peaks in the history of music. A further and precious special feature of this boxed set is its coherence, in the sense that all the works recorded here are directed by a single conductor, Jan Willem de Vriend, at the head of a single orchestra, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. It is clear that this aspect provides a unity, an organic force and therefore an authority that other collections featuring different directors cannot boast. Finally, the soloists in the concertos are, like de Vriend himself, among the star artists of our record label: the pianist Hannes Minnaar and the violinist Liza Ferschtman. For the Triple Concerto, we have chosen the version appreciated by critics and audiences alike, with the Storioni Trio. Therefore, it seems somewhat unusual that in a recording market bursting at the seams with offers and proposals, in particular with Beethoven records this year, no one had yet thought of collecting the orchestral / symphonic production of Beethoven in a single box and under the baton of a single director, music that includes some of the public's (and of course musicologists') most loved masterpieces. The Symphonies, the Piano Concertos and the Violin Concerto all enjoy the status of absolute masterpieces in the history of music, while the Triple Concerto, perhaps the Cinderella among the works collected here, is a significant work within both Beethoven's own corpus and the musical output of the early 19th century, if only for the total novelty of the chosen solo instruments at the time. We conclude this brief presentation, underlining one last but significant factor in the project's cohesion and cogency: all the recordings presented here were curated by Bert van der Wolf of Northstar Recording, one of the most innovative and capable sound engineers of the classic milieu.
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