Certainly a bargain and quite provocative is the complete Beethoven
Symphony set by David Zinman and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, on Arte
Nova.  The complete set on 5 cds often sells for $20-25.

Although not played on historical instruments (except the horns, perhaps),
this set seems to go about as far as one can with a modern orchestra
towards the sonorities of the early 19th century.  Zinman's performances
are based on the new Barenreiter critical edition of the symphonies
(although he does not slavishly followi its editor's more daring readings)
and approximating Beethoven's metronome marks, it is the result of almost
twenty years' experimentation on the conductor's part with this approach
to the music.  I heard the earlier stages of this work-in-progress in
performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the late 1980s and
early 1990s and was as much infuriated as stimulated by the outcome--these
are far more convincing over all, and give valuable evidence of a
mainstream conductor's assimilation of the historical performance
movement's goals.

Joel Lazar
Conductor, Bethesda MD
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