Orch Romantique:Gardiner - Beethoven: Symphonies 2 8

From the very start, the cut-to-the-bone immediacy of the sound puts you up close and personal to the performance - GramophoneAfter hearing these explosive, invigorating and electrifying performances, we are reminded once again of the ferocious intensity that must have shell-shocked 19th century Viennese audiences. - BBC Music MagazineThe execution is fabulous, the (superlative) stylistic foundation always at the service of the music's rhythm, energy and inner logic - Financial TimesOctober 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Orchestre R�volutionnaire et�Romantique. Twenty years after their acclaimed Beethoven Symphonies recordings for�Deutsche Grammophon, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the orchestra continue to revisit this�repertoire - this album follows the release of Symphonies 5 & 7 recorded live at Carnegie Hall.The Second and Eighth, two of the lighter symphonies, are among Sir John Eliot's favourites.�The Second's life-affirming energy is rooted in Mozart and 18th c. opera, at times romantically�tender and others ferociously determined. Beethoven's adventurous spirit can be heard in the�Eighth, which is buoyant and energetic with a spirit of wit and playfulness.The album is presented in a digipack and contains a 28 pages booklet with original notes by�BBC presenter and music journalist Stephen Johnson, translated in German and French.