Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 – Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker (2001)

Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 is musically distinct from his Seventh, yet remarkably close in time, completed just five months later. It seems to bridge the gap between the passionate intensity of the Seventh and the grand scope of the Ninth. Despite the composer's own description of it as a "little symphony," its cheerful character should not be overlooked.