Concertgebouw Free Downloads

[Don]

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, in celebration of their 120th anniversary, has made 10 live recordings available for free download starting today, 10/15, through 10/24. It seems the downloads are available for the whole period, but I am not sure so get them while you can.

Here is the link:

[url
http://kco.radio4.nl/?lang=en][/url]

I did the first one Schubert Unfinished with Harnoncourt from 1997 the second one is Beethoven 2nd with Janssons 2004. There is a Mahler 1 upcoming but not sure of the performers. Other downloads include a Mendelssohn 4th, Franck Dmin, the mentioned Mahler 1st, Dvorak 8th, Saint Saens 3rd, Sibelius 2nd, Bruckner 8th and Brahms 2nd. No info on the performers as of yet. You can download a CD cover with minimal liner notes but info on performers and dates.

 

[akiralx]

That Jansons Beethoven 2 is very good, I have the SACD, coupled with the decent but unremarkable Brahms 2 - which is probably the last download.

[Don]

The next one Kondrashin doing the Mendelssohn "Italian" from 1979. Downloading now.

[Don]

So here is the final list of the 10 downloads, available until Nov 24th:

Schubert Symphony # 8 Harnoncourt November 1997
Beethoven Symphony # 2 Jansons October 2004
Mendelssohn Symphony # 4 Kondrashin November 1979
Franck Symphony in d Jansons December 2004
Mahler Symphony # 1 Bernstein October 1987
Dvorak Symphony # 8 Giulini December 1990
Saint-Saëns Symphony # 3 Organ Myung-Whun Chung October 2005
Sibelius Symphony # 2 Jansons  8-9/2005
Bruckner Symphony # 8 Haitink February 2005
Brahms Symphony # 2 Jansons October 2005

A little heavy on the Jansons performances for some reason. I would have loved to have heard some more historical recordings or conductors who rarely appeared with the Concertgebouw. But, all in all, what a deal!

[Jules]

Hello everybody!

I have been reading this forum for some time, and finally I have decided to participate... This is my first post in it!

Great initiative from one of the top orchestras! I have downloaded all the concerts, but I have not listened to all of them yet. In my opinioin, the only thing you can do without is so far Chung’s Saint-Saëns, quite dull to my taste…Kondrashin's Mendelssohn is splendid, as well as Giulini's Dvorak and, of course, Bernstein M1, taken from the very concerts that finally became the official DG recording. And also Jansons' brilliant Beethoven2... He seems to be a great Beethoven conductor!

Yes, it is a pity that some historic names don’t appear on the list. Especially striking is the absence of Jansons’ predecessor, Chailly.

Regards.