Just two days ago, I asked if it was the end of the big classical box set. Today, I learned that the new Complete Beethoven box set, which was released a few weeks ago, is available to stream on Apple Music. Universal music says:
Apple Music, in collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon, have launched a newly curated Beethoven Room to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary next year. The Beethoven Room offers full access to the composer’s music, listeners can find every note of the composer’s work as well as brand-new releases, and fresh audio and audiovisual content will be added weekly.
Apple Music’s Beethoven Room offers direct access to Deutsche Grammophon’s Beethoven – The New Complete Edition, the most comprehensive and authoritative collection ever produced, which was developed in collaboration with leading scholars at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. The 16 digital albums from The New Complete Edition include historic landmarks recordings by some of the world’s greatest performers – from Abbado to Argerich, Bernstein to Brendel, Karajan to Kremer, Menuhin to Mutter and Perahia to Pollini – as well as world premieres of recently rediscovered works.
This changes things. While I don’t regret buying this set, had I known that it would all be streamable, I certainly would not have purchased it. The complete Bach and Mozart editions that Universal released in recent years are not available to stream, but large parts of them are.
You can access this music on Apple Music. I will point out that it’s not easy to find this page when searching Apple Music. If you search for “Beethoven 2020” you’ll be able to find the albums, but not the page that serves as a portal to this set and other Beethoven recordings and videos.