Album: Gustavo Dudamel, The Simon Bolivar Orchestra: Beethoven 3 "Eroica"; Overtures (Deutsche Grammophon)

The Simon Bolivar Orchestra may have dropped the "youth" from their name, but as Gustavo Dudamel claims, "the young soul remains".

Their blend of gusto tempered with sensitivity makes the SBO perfectly equipped for Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony, a glorious affirmation of life by a composer who had recently considered, but rejected, suicide due to the cataclysmic onset of deafness. The opening Allegro con brio movement alone is magnificent, its audacious shifts between quietly scurrying woodwind and stormy, dissonant climaxes eagerly negotiated by the SBO. The symphony is accompanied here by both the Overture to Egmont and the Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus.

Download: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major "Eroica"