Beethoven box sets reviews: Which anniversary bumper box hits all the high notes?  

Beethoven 2020: The New Complete Edition          DG/Decca, out now 

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Beethoven: Complete Edition                                                       Naxos, out now

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Beethoven: The Complete Works                                            Warner, out now 

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For many classical music lovers, myself included, Beethoven is the greatest. Even for those who don’t rate him the best, it’s hard to imagine any but the cloth-eared failing to rank him with Bach, Mozart and Wagner.

So the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth is a big deal for the record companies. Three of them have brought out complete sets: DG/Decca on 118 CDs, with much else besides, for £220; Warner on 80 CDs at £75; Naxos on 90 CDs, available for £110. All are good and offer real value.

I would put Warner in third place because its box – with its tatty liner booklet – could, and should, have been much better. Warner now owns the EMI archive so, for instance, why has the Nikolaus Harnoncourt/Chamber Orchestra of Europe symphony set been chosen?

For many classical music lovers, myself included, Beethoven is the greatest so the 250th anniversary of his birth is a big deal for the record companies

Perhaps Warner, as a French company, prefers an original Erato issue to all the gems on EMI from the likes of Daniel Barenboim, Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Simon Rattle and Wolfgang Sawallisch, to name but a few. The DG/Decca offering covers almost the entire range of its Beethoven archive, but Warner plainly didn’t want to devote the same kind of time to this project as DG/Decca.

The piano concertos are entrusted to Andras Schiff and Bernard Haitink, and the piano sonatas to Stephen Kovacevich, while Klemperer gets a look-in with both the Missa Solemnis and Fidelio, both best-in-class issues.

Three of them have brought out complete sets but it’s the DG/Decca box which is the one to have boasting 118 CDs, three Blue-ray audio discs, two DVDs and a 275-page, hardcover book

Naxos gets the silver medal with a more complete box. The artists may not be top drawer but are all highly capable. The Hungarian pianist Jeno Jando, responsible for almost all the music requiring a piano, is a charismatic virtuoso. 

The excellent Fidelio is another recording from Budapest. Only the 20-year-old, Budapest-sourced complete symphonies disappoint – a surprising inclusion, given that Naxos has recently issued the Danish Chamber Orchestra set under Adam Fischer, who has also recorded the complete symphonies of Haydn and Mozart.

Naxos gets the silver medal: the artists may not be top drawer but are all highly capable. Sadly the Warner box – with its tatty liner booklet – could, and should, have been much better

But this set is formidable value. It will give great pleasure to those unable, or unwilling, to pay twice as much for the comprehensive DG/Decca box, which includes a complete set of traditionally performed symphonies, an original instrument set, and one specially sourced from the Vienna Philharmonic. 

By the same token, the 32 piano sonatas are performed by 11 different pianists. In addition, there are three Blu-ray audio discs, two DVDs and a 275-page, hardcover book, containing much about Beethoven’s turbulent life. This is the set to have.

I do have a complaint, though. They should have thrown in a body-building course, because it weighs in at 16 lb – a lot for old codgers like me to lug around!