The Swiss label Guild's Beethoven: Contemporary Arrangements for Chamber Ensemble presents three familiar favorites in "new" clothes, at least new to us. These arrangements for string quintet of
Beethoven works both large and small, his stormy Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor ("Pathétique"), Op. 13, is heard in an edition made by Vienna publisher Tobias Haslinger in 1807; Haslinger is also responsible for the quintet version of Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93, printed in 1816. It is unlikely that Haslinger would have published anything that fell short of
Beethoven's own standards, as he was a close friend of the composer. The firm of Simrock issued the arrangement of the Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21, and this was a publisher that was central to the establishment of
Beethoven's reputation. Therefore, in a sense these arrangements are "authentic" even if there is no clear-cut proof that they were "authorized." These seem to be first recordings, based on early prints held by the Zentralbibliothek in Zurich.