This is the third volume in a cycle of the Complete Symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven being released by conductor Jan Willem de Vriend and the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. The new disc features Symphonies No. 7 and 8, and as with the previous titles, CC72361 (Nos. 1 & 5) and CC72364 which included Nos. 4 and 6, is made available as a hybrid SACD.

Beethoven wrote his celebrated Seventh Symphony in A major in 1812 while staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplice in the hope of improving his health. It was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries. At its debut in Vienna that December, Beethoven was noted as remarking that he believed it to be one of his best works. The Eighth was completed in the same year and is a fairly light-hearted work. In fact Beethoven himself referred to it as his “little Symphony in F” in order to distinguish it from the Sixth, the “Pastoral” Symphony, which is in the same key.

Jan Willem de Vriend is the artistic director of Combattimento Consort Amsterdam and since 2006 has been the chief conductor and artistic director of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. De Vriend has been a guest conductor with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hague Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra is based in province of Overijssel with performs concert series in Enschede, Hengelo, Zwolle and Deventer. Another important role for the orchestra is accompanying De Nationale Reisopera and provincial choral societies.