The opportunity to celebrate, in 2020, the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven alongside the 30th anniversary of German reunification is akin to a gift for a CD label that has been instrumental in preserving the recording heritage of the GDR, offering as it does the opportunity for a retrospective view and assessment of the past. The fall of the Berlin Wall generated the desire to embed in the collective memory of a music-loving public the names of conductors, soloists and ensembles, an endeavour which has already seen some success. And that desire has never been – despite what nay-sayers often claim – entirely supplanted by purely commercial considerations. This means that recordings with a backstory worth telling – some of which have become classics within the catalogue and others which simply deserve to be rediscovered – can now be newly appreciated. In some cases, the circumstances surrounding the recordings themselves deserve respect for the efforts of those involved.

This series with 10 new editions from the archive of ETERNA recordings includes audio productions from the early days of the label as well as later productions from the late 1980s. Partly remastered from the original tapes and provided with the original covers, these historic-legendary recordings shine in new glamour.

- Leonore: Edda Moser (soprano)

- Folrestan: Richard Cassilly (tenor)

- Don Pizzaro: Theo Adam (bass)

- Rocco: Karl Ridderbsuch (bass)

- Marzelline: Helen Donath (soprano)

- Jaquino: Eberhard Büchner (tenor)

- Don Fernando: Hermann Christian Polster (bass)

- First Prisoner: Reiner Goldberg (tenor)

- Second Prisoner: Siegfried Lorenz (baritone)