This is a wonderful CD. In fact, I used to have it on cassette and when that conked out, I had to buy the exact same production on CD. That was because of the other two pieces, the Fantasia for piano, orchestra and chorus, previously blogged (but this version is just so much more passionate crisply delivered) and, also the Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, which I think liked more then than now! And also because I have a minor DG Yellow fetish.
But the CD exists mainly for the Sixth, the rest is filler.
I have been looking over my early efforts at blogging my entire record collection, and I didn't actually go into great detail beyond "I like". Which is perhaps no bad thing. I really like Beethoven's 6th - Pastoral - Symphony, but not as much as I like 5 and 9. 5 and 9 are the pinnacle of his genius, 6 is merely a manifestation! God, that sounds pretentious. For me it is so much better than most of the symphonies in my collection, and yet, for me, it falls short of his two best.
There is an excerpt that is often included on compilation CDs and, indeed in Fantasia - indisputably the greatest animated film of all time - which makes it very familiar to anybody with even a passing interest in music - and probably the reason why this symphony is no.8 in this year's Classic FM Hall of Fame (if you don't believe me, note that the Pearl Fishers is no. 1 opera...even though, like, nobody has ever seen the Pearl Fishers...). Some compilation CDs even include just that bit and call it "Beethoven's 6th Symphony", giving the impression that the compilers don't have a 'king clue that symphonies generally consist of approximately four complete movements.
