May 3: Sony Classical Announces Antonello Manacorda & Kammerakademie Potsdam Conclude Their Recording of Beethoven's Complete Symphonies

Sony Classical Announces
Antonello Manacorda and Kammerakademie Potsdam

Conclude Their Recording of
Beethoven - The Complete Symphonies
with Release of All Nine Masterworks Together

First Single “Scherzo” from “Eroica Symphony No. 3” Out Today

Final Installment in Series Celebrates the 200th Anniversary of the Ninth Symphony’s Premier Performance
Cycle Out May 3, 2024 on Sony Classical as Special Boxset and Digitally

“Those listening to these new recordings will be richly rewarded.” – Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

The Kammerakademie Potsdam (Chamber Academy Potsdam) and its principal conductor Antonello Manacorda will complete their new Beethoven cycle with the release of all nine symphonies in a special box set out on Sony Classical on May 3, 2024. As the third and final installment in the series, the release will include their new recording of Beethoven’s Third, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies as well as the composer’s legendary Ninth Symphony. The release coincides with the 200-year anniversary celebrations of the premiere performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in early May. The first single is out today - the “Scherzo. Allegro vivace” from Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica” – listen here.

The first two installments in the ensemble’s Beethoven cycle recording have been released to great critical acclaim. Reviewing their first installment, German magazine Stereoplay spoke of an “incredible anticipatory pleasure and love of life,” Gramophone Magazine remarked “The orchestra’s rhythmic assurance is similarly impressive, and especially in the way they bring a sense of the dance to these scores,” while Fono Forum singled out the performances’ “inner logic and power of conviction.” Reviewing the second installment, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote, “Those listening to these new recordings will be richly rewarded.”

Antonello Manacorda explains his approach to the cycle “What matters to me personally is that Beethoven is not just a composer but basically also a philosopher. He tells us not just about music but also about ourselves: who we are, where we are coming from and where we are going; why we are here in this world and what we hope to achieve here. A traversal of these symphonies is far more of a philosophical journey than a musical one.”

Of the composer’s seminal Ninth Symphony Manacorda believes, “it was and remains a hugely provocative piece. Every instrument in the orchestra is taken to its limits. Then comes a theme that is so simple and yet so memorable but which he repeats with dangerous frequency. What he does with the four vocal soloists borders on the ridiculous. The bass is a kind of Evangelist of Joy, the tenor a hero for the whole of humankind and the poor women are two angels. To me it’s like a Mass but with secular words, a philosophical credo. Beethoven spent his whole life asking himself why humankind has been placed on this earth and what our mission may be. Here he gives his answer: it revolves around the ideal of brotherly love, the great fraternization of humankind in a spirit of life-affirming joy.”

The Kammerakademie Potsdam and its music director Antonello Manacorda have garnered multiple awards with their complete recordings of the symphonies of Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn, while their release of Mozart’s last three symphonies earned them the title of Orchestra of the Year at the 2022 OPUS Klassik Awards – Germany’s leading televised classical awards. Brandenburg’s first orchestral academy appears in Potsdam and throughout Brandenburg, performing concerts geared to all age-groups, while also undertaking Europe-wide tours. The musicians perform on a combination of old and modern instruments which allows them to perform works for relatively large ensembles without a large string section, while enabling them to achieve the right balance and requisite degree of clarity.

As an Italian with a pronounced affinity for German music, Manacorda has appeared in many of the world’s leading opera houses from London and Munich to New York. Among the internationally renowned symphony orchestras with which he has worked are the Berliner Philharmoniker, where he returns in May, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. He will also conduct Carmen at London’s Royal Opera House in April this year.

Sony Classical will release Beethoven – The Complete Symphonies on May 3 as boxset and on all digital formats. The artwork has been created by renowned German artist Jorinde Voigt.

Antonello Manacorda & Kammerakademie Potsdam
Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies
Ludwig Van Beethoven 1770–1827

Tracklist
CD 1

Symphony No. 1 In C Major, Op. 21
Symphony No. 3 In E-Flat Major “Eroica”, Op. 55

CD 2

Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 36
Symphony No. 4 In B-Flat Major, Op. 60

CD 3

Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67
Symphony No. 6 In F Major “Pastoral”, Op. 68

CD 4

Symphony No. 7 In A Major, Op. 92
Symphony No. 8 In F Major, Op. 93

CD 5

Symphony No. 9 In D Minor “Choral”, Op. 125

Kammerakademie Potsdam
Antonello Manacorda, Conductor