Beethoven

Plus, a gun-down of food-world icons, Beethoven’s ninth, McGill and the Dead Sea scrolls, a literary classic and an even-handed treatment of Rush Limbaugh

Paul Wells has a great post about Beethoven symphony recordings, and asks for my input. I don’t know how much I can add, because all his choices are excellent (I agree in particular that the David Zinman set is a great bargain), but here are some other recordings I’ve liked.

I wrote about Beethoven earlier today — Thursdays are slow around here, and I’m trying to get the election out of my head, and music is always good — and one of the commenters mentioned the boxed set of Karajan conducting the Beethoven symphonies that always comes out around Christmas for $25. And I jumped in to say, Hey, don’t buy the Karajan cheapo Beethoven symphony box, because it’s a snoozer. Which led a couple more commenters to ask me what they should get instead. Here is the answer. Well, two answers:

Two articles from the print edition, which you should buy anyway: I ponder the significance of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s odd new CD; and I try to figure out who will replace Stephen Harper as the next federal Conservative leader.