Beethoven Symphonies 7-9

Beethoven Symphonies 7-9 concert. Christian Thielemann conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker in Symphonies 7-9 for a total of 157 minutes of music. Soloists (9th Symphony) are Annette Dasch, Mihoko Fujimura, Piotr Beczala, and Georg Zeppenfeld. Michael Beyer was video director for Symphony 7 and 8, both recorded in 2009. Agnes Méth was video director for Symphony 9 recorded in 2010.

Also comes with three Discovering Beethoven documentary films, one for each symphony, with conversations between Thielemann and music critic Joachim Kaiser. The documentaries Symphony 7 and Symphony 8 were made by Christoph Engel. The ducumentary film  Symphony 9 was made by Anca-Monica Pandelea & Christoph Engel. Each documentary lasts for almost an hour for a total of 169 minutes.

The total running time for the music and documentaries is 326 minutes on one disc. Released  2010, disc has  5.0 dts-HD Master Audio for the music. Documentaries are in high-definition video with PCM stereo sound. Grade: 

This is the third title in the C Major three-title set with all nine Beethoven symphonies. For general information, see the mini-reviews for the Symphonies 1-3 concert and the Symphonies 4-6 concert.

The sound for all the symphonies on subject disc is impeccable. The videos by Michael Beyer are up to the standards of Brian Large. Georg Zeppenfeld has the thrill of being the first singer in history to open his mouth in a Symphony No. 9 recorded for HDVD. Although others have criticized him, to me Zeppenfeld is aurally and visually up to the task. It was also fun to see Piotr Beczala ( the Duca di Mantova in our Arthaus Rigoletto HDVD) sing tenor solo.