Originally planned for April 2020 to celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday, the project "Beethoven: The Symphonies" is the third collaboration between Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the COE, having already performed and recorded complete Schumann and Mendelssohn cycles together in 2014 and 2017. For the symphony cycle, the now complete performance material with the score of the "New Beethoven Complete Edition" was used. Especially in the 9th Symphony, the difference can literally be heard and experienced, as Beethoven's original and recently rediscovered contrabassoon part is used for the first time. The recording will also be the COE's first complete Beethoven cycle since the groundbreaking CD with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in the 1990s. Yannick Nézet-Séguin has just won his first-ever Grammy for "Best Orchestral Performance" for his recording of Florence Price's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra.