Beethoven: Symphonies No. 7 & 8

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has performed Beethoven symphony cycles in concert on several occasions. The late former chief conductor Mariss Jansons, who died in 2019, expanded this cycle concept in several ways: through concerts at Tokyo's Suntory Hall with its excellent acoustics, through specially commissioned works in which contemporary composers contributed their own musical reflections on Beethoven's symphonies, and through the release of live recordings of these outstanding concert events for the recording market. The live recordings of Symphonies No. 7 and No. 8 were made in 2012 at Tokyo's Suntory Hall, renowned for its spectacularly good acoustics, and were highly acclaimed by audiences and music critics alike. Shortly after the tour, Japan's Music Pen Club praised Mariss Jansons for his new, modern, and transparent vision of Beethoven. Jörg Widmann (*1973), one of the most important representatives of a younger generation of composers, contributed to this current exploration of the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies with a work entitled "Con brio".