# Beethoven 9 Symphonies: How do you like it arranged on discs?



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I always find it irritating when a symphony cycle is put on discs and overtures etc. are used as filler to use the extra space on a disc. I like my symphony cycles pure! But another question is what order do you prefer on the disc sets. I have the Hanover Band cycle and they order them consecutively,

1,2
3,4
5,6
7,8
9

They also leave the overtures for a 6th disc, and add a 7th disc for the Missa Solemnis (nice set!).

But consecutive order does not always work since the lengths vary by what conductor is doing it. So the length of each symphony may dictate what disc order is possible.

I just received the Amadis Naxos set of nine symphonies (two different orchestras and conductors) and the arrangement is interesting,

5,2
3,8
6,1
7,4
9

Now what I find interesting and likeable about this order is that each disc (except the 5th disc with the Ninth of course) begins with a popular Beethoven symphony and ends with a less popular symphony. The other thing I like about it is that you jump right in with both feet from the get go with Da Da Da Daaaa!


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

How I like it arranged:

With #'s 1, 2 and 8 removed. Thank you very much!


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

hpowders said:


> How I like it arranged:
> 
> With #'s 1, 2 and 8 removed. Thank you very much!


I have just the Beethoven set for you:









But at least with the Hanover Band set you can pitch the first disc and only be burdened with #8.


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I would prefer chronological, but that's not always practicable. What I don't like is for a single work to stretch over multiple disks That's more of a Mahler problem than anything else, but I have a Duo of Brendel/Mozart PCs which breaks up one of the works.


----------



## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

My Bernstein symphony cycle is 1,3,2,4,5,6,7,8,9. I always found it very annoying and finally renumbered it in iTunes. My Bohm cycle has the overture filler and is equally annoying. When I'm listening, I sort it alphabetically instead of by track and disc number. This ensures the symphonies stay together. The most annoying of all has to be Harnoncourt's Schubert cycle. The digital download from Amazon labeled individual movements of the same symphony completely differently and I had to rebuild the entire thing from scratch. I'm big on uniformity and organization in my music library. The lack of these two things keeps me from enjoying what I'm listening to.


----------



## Guest (Nov 20, 2014)

I personally love the overtures tossed in. Because of this, I have the excellent 60's Karajan 9th with the Coriolan, and the Fricsay 9th with Egmont. Heavenly albums!

I don't care about the order - I listen on my iPod, and that is what playlists are for.


----------



## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

DrMike said:


> I personally love the overtures tossed in. Because of this, I have the excellent 60's Karajan 9th with the Coriolan, and the Fricsay 9th with Egmont. Heavenly albums!
> 
> I don't care about the order - I listen on my iPod, and that is what playlists are for.


I have those albums as well. I don't dislike the overtures. I dislike the overtures being in between symphonies on a cycle release. My favorite overture (Rosamunde) is included with Schubert 9/Muti-Vienna, an album I would trade for nothing else.


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I prefer to have all of my symphony/string quartet/etc sets ordered numerically, but it doesn't really matter a whole lot to me. More important is using the least number of CDs (keeps price down; is more compact). I, too, don't mind overtures and other works being used as filler. I don't like having other composers filling out an album, though. In the rarest of instances, such as when another composer writes a requiem for the composer, then I can accept it. I don't like having works split onto more than one disc, if possible, but I can live with it, since I have a 5-disc carousel CD changer.


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

1,2
3,4
5,6
7,8
9

Works best for me. My first four favourites up the top.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Florestan said:


> I have just the Beethoven set for you:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wrap it up!!!


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> 1,2
> 3,4
> 5,6
> 7,8
> ...


So today I stopped by Dearborn Music here in SE Michigan and noticed a nice 2-CD set that seems to fit the bill for you:


----------



## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I also prefer chronological. The set I have with Muti and Philadelphia orchestra goes as such:

1 & 5 [interesting pairing, Early then Middle Beethoven]
2 & 4 [I like the second, but not the fourth, so this one is meh]
3, Fidelio Overture, and Consecration of the House overture [lots o' filler here]
6 & Leonore Overture 3
7 & 8
and finally, 9


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The OP assumes one will simply sit there and listen to the entire 9 without a break.

I don't know about the rest of you, but in over 40 years of listening, I've never done that, so for me it's whichever symphony suits my fancy for the moment. No sequential arrangement necessary.


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

hpowders said:


> The OP assumes one will simply sit there and listen to the entire 9 without a break.


Or he leaves the CD in the player overnight when he wants to resume his chronological listening.


----------



## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

hpowders said:


> How I like it arranged:
> 
> With #'s 1, 2 and 8 removed. Thank you very much!


IMO, it's very difficult to hate the 8th. How did you manage it?


----------



## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Yeah, by the time the 1st mov of the 9th ends, your ears already need a 2 week break before they can handle the other movements.


----------



## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

I quite frequently listen to the symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Glazunov, and others by starting at 1 and listening thru. I don't always get all the way thru but I try. I see nothing strange about this.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

shangoyal said:


> IMO, it's very difficult to hate the 8th. How did you manage it?


I've never liked it. I don't know. Why do some people prefer mustard over ketchup?


----------



## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

You know, if you burn it to a Hard Drive, you can order it any way that you like. Just sayin.


----------



## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

Triplets said:


> You know, if you burn it to a Hard Drive, you can order it any way that you like. Just sayin.


I do understand where they are coming from, a lot of people listen to the actual CDs and it's a pain when a symphony is split up on two discs (I'm looking at you, Mahler and Bruckner! ) or when symphonies aren't in order. However, as you said, Hard Drives, USBs, etc. is what I do as well. I listen to my music on a Digital Music Player, so I never really have to worry about the actual arrangement on CDs once I have the files on my computer and music player.

http://www.cnet.com/news/fiios-nifty-200-portable-high-resolution-music-player-is-a-knockout/


----------



## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

DiesIraeVIX said:


> I do understand where they are coming from, a lot of people listen to the actual CDs and it's a pain when a symphony is split up on two discs (I'm looking at you, Mahler and Bruckner! ) or when symphonies aren't in order. However, as you said, Hard Drives, USBs, etc. is what I do as well. I listen to my music on a Digital Music Player, so I never really have to worry about the actual arrangement on CDs once I have the files on my computer and music player.
> 
> http://www.cnet.com/news/fiios-nifty-200-portable-high-resolution-music-player-is-a-knockout/


 Not to mention the Sonic improvements from reduction of jitter.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Now here is an interesting article that suggests there is value in listening to all nine symphonies together and in order:



> "Hypothetically, my ideal would be to play the nine symphonies non-stop. I have analysed the end of one symphony and the start of the next, and then you see a certain logic emerge; one symphony follows the previous one with a different tonality, shape and character. But all the symphonies belong to this unity of one oeuvre, one opus. Mahler learnt to do the same from Beethoven."


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Simple: 4...6, 4...6, 4...6...4...6 on a continuous loop.


----------



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I prefer to listen to his symphonies in chronological order just as musicologists have avowed.

So I'm huge on that order. But if I'm not acting intellectually, I prefer to listen to this order:

2-4-8-1-5-3-9-7-6.


----------

