Recording and performing all nine Beethoven symphonies requires some audacity, as the musicians have to come to terms not only with some of the supreme creations in the history of mankind, but also with the enormous weight of performance history. These works entered the repertory immediately from the early 1800's and never left it.

Can any new recording of the cycle make people stand up and listen? This one did, said Paavo Jarvi: "Once the CD started appearing, we got a lot attention for it. We didn’t quite expect that much. Because in the beginning the response was, 'What else are we going to say that hasn’t already been said?' But somehow we had enough confidence and maybe stupidity or youthful enthusiasm to go ahead with it. And we’re not competing with anybody. We just want to have ours."

Thanks to the efforts of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Deutsche Welle, this movement from Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, composed in 1806, is not only theirs, but yours as well.

rf/kb