Beethoven: 9 symphonies and 5 piano concertos Together at a special price

On his personal approach to these performances, Sir Simon said: “You can make Beethoven too sophisticated or too elegant. You can try to make him agree with himself when often he’s fighting with himself. I think the more direct this music sounds, the better. And when I ask my orchestra, “will you joyfully motor this machine off the cliff top?ʼ, everybody says ʻof course we willʼ.” The concerts in which the Berliner Philharmoniker and their chief conductor presented the symphonies in the Philharmonie in October 2015 were correspondingly enthralling. The complete recording of the five piano concertos with Mitsuko Uchida was also one of the most spectacular projects of the Berliner Philharmoniker during the Rattle era – and at the same time the culmination of the collaboration between orchestra and pianist which began in 1984. In the end there was enthusiastic applause in the auditorium and in the press – in the words of one critic, a “collective feeling of happiness” overcame the visitors on these evenings. With vibrant freshness, the performances brought the whole combative energy of these works to life. At the same time, they revealed Beethoven’s incomparable spirituality, which – according to Mitsuko Uchida – “allows us to see to the end of the universe”.

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