This is Challenge Records' contribution to the 250th anniversary celebrations of Beethoven's birth, and a very fine one it is as well. All of these recordings have been released over the years in single and/or box sets of SACD multi-layer discs, and this all-inclusive box is a more budget-friendly release on standard CDs.[...] All things considered this is a collection that is well worth having.[...] These are all excellent recordings, with a very high standard of performance and a consistent sound that blends period-informed transparency with satisfyingly modern sonorities.
Musicweb International, 01-11-2020
Press
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. 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 becomes clear that this aspect provides a unity, an organic force and therefore an authority that other collections featuring different directors cannot boast. Finally, all the recordings presented here were curated by Bert van der Wolf of Northstar Recording, one of the classical scene’s most innovative and capable sound engineers.