TITLE : Beethoven: Symphony No.6 “Pastoral” & Leonore Overture No.3
	CATALOGUE NUMBER : 462 595-2
	INTERNATIONAL RELEASE DATE : October 2000
WORKS
Symphony No.6 "Pastoral" Leonore Overture No.3
ARTISTS
Saito Kinen Orchestra Seiji Ozawa
COMPOSER
Beethoven
RECORDING INFORMATION
Following its success in Japan, this album is being packaged for international release and will appeal to Ozawa and Beethoven fans everywhere. The “Pastoral” Symphony — No.6 — is one of his most famous and is coupled here with the Leonore Overture No.3. Seiji Ozawa, one of Philips’ longest recording artists, conducts this symphony with the orchestra he has created for his festival. Saito Kinen Orchestra is composed of young and talented Japanese musicians, and has enjoyed great success since its debut in 1992. Beethoven began composing the Sixth Symphony in 1808. This was at the end of a particularly productive and positive period for Beethoven as regards composing. However, whilst his fame was spreading rapidly throughout Europe and he was the toast of Viennese audiences, he still had no regular income. To raise income he first performed the piece at a gargantuan benefit concert in Vienna, along with the Fifth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (with Beethoven as soloist) and a section of the Mass in C. One reviewer in the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung felt the work should have been called a fantasia rather than a symphony.