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10 of the best recordings released in celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary

We round up some of the best recordings of Beethoven's music from 2020

Published: May 13, 2020 at 8:00 am

It wouldn’t be a composer anniversary without an influx of new releases. We’ve already seen (and reviewed) many notable Beethoven discs in recent issues, and there are plenty more in the offing.

Fazil Say

Pianist Fazil Say follows Igor Levit with a complete set of sonatas for Warner Classics.

The best recordings of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata

Peter Hill/Benjamin Frith

Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith present the composer’s works for Piano Four Hands on Delphian.

Read our review of this recording here

Five of the best recordings of Beethoven's piano sonata cycles

Elizabeth Sombard

Sticking with pianists, Elizabeth Sombart joins the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 for Signum Classics.

Read our review of this recording here

Omri & Ori Epstein

Omri Epstein duets with cellist brother Ori in a disc of cello and piano works for Linn Records.

Read our review of this recording here

Brodsky Quartet

There’s further chamber music, as Chandos releases a two-disc set of Beethoven’s late quartets, performed by the Brodsky Quartet.

Read our review of this recording here

The best recordings of Beethoven's Fidelio

Belcea Quartet

Alpha Classics, meanwhile, presents all of the quartets in the hands of the Belcea Quartet.

Ronald Brautigam

There are several small-but-perfectly-formed box sets on the way, including Ronald Brautigam’s recordings of the complete Variations, Bagatelles and Clavierstücke, on six discs from BIS.

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/Gardiner

Archiv Produktion gathers together all its Beethoven recordings by John Eliot Gardiner with his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique – the 15-disc set includes the symphonies, concertos, a mass and a recording of Leonore.

The top 20 Beethoven works

What is the difference between a concerto and a symphony?

New York Philharmonic/Bernstein

Similar repertoire comes on Sony Classical’s ten-disc set of recordings by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

Reetta Haavisto

Then there’s soprano Reetta Haavisto, who gets vocal with the Turku Philharmonic and Leif Segerstam in a programme of works for voice and orchestra on Naxos.

Read our review of this recording here

Read reviews of the latest Beethoven recordings here

Find out more about Beethoven and his works here

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