Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

I'd like recommendations for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. There was a thread (now closed) for the best SACD, but I have no preference for the format, so CD will be fine (although I can play SACD). I've looked at other forums and sites but there is little concensus as far as I can see (was it ever thus). My main requirements are that it must be at least stereo and not a live performance (i.e. it should be a studio recording). I'm not a classical music expert, just someone who likes what he likes.

 

Charles Munch on RCA Living Stereo for a burning down the house performance. My overall favorite is Szell with Cleveland Orchestra. Karajan's 60s recording on DG is also excellent. These are all stereo and are studio recordings.

 

Agreed, and there are others. Whenever I see a 9th performance I don't have in a shops bins I grab it. In my area very few classical discs command over $4.99USD with majority being $1.99USD or less.

 

Karajan 1963 on DG. His 1977 recording for DG is excellent, but I find the intensity of his 1963 recording keeps me coming back.

 

This one is a favorite.
Berliner Philharmonika, Claudio Abbado, conductor

 

I found this just yesterday and it's...err...quite unique, I think.

 

I like this one:



Orchestra Suisse Romande/Ernest Ansermet (1961) on London Records.

 

I think there's a tendency to only recommend recordings from the golden age of analog...and there's many really good one. However, I think more recent recordings have a lot to say as well, and frankly a good recent recording is going to sound better than a vintage one. I'd recommend checking out Zinman, who takes inspiration from the period instrument folks without trying to pretend it's 1820 (leading to the modern school of Beethoven conducting).

Vanska's whole cycle is also highly recommendable, once again including the ninth.



Both boxes come in at about $30 all-inclusive. You can track down individual 9ths from both sets if you want to as well.

 

There can't be any consensus for a piece like this. There are countless performances of this symphony and many are excellent in one way or another. So people will just recommend their favourite, which often happens to be the one their got to know first. And that's perfectly fine. So I will do the same.

I own about 5 or 6 different performances of the 9th, but for stereo listening I always return to Kurt Masur conducting the Gewandhausorchester in '74. My favourite piece of recorded music ever.

 

I agree about liking the first version that hooks you. Mine was this one, and when I listen to others I find myself noting the differences.

Google Image Result for https://is2-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Features/6e/55/b2/dj.fjmmpevq.jpg/268x0w.jpg

 

For the record, the 1963 Karajan was not the first one I heard and I have heard about 20 recordings of this work.

 

Fritz Reiner with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the early sixties on RCA is the one for me. I like Szell, Walter, Klemperer, Karajan, Solti, and others; but it seems to me that Reiner gets the most things right. For me, his second and third movements are unmatched.

 

Yes, I didn't mean to imply that this goes for everyone here. Of course there are members here who really know their classical music and have formed their opinions over years of listening to lots of different performances. I never doubted you were one of them.

 

Asking for Beethoven recs will only give you option anxiety. Everyone's got their favorites. Listen for yourself and decide.

 

I like the szell too

 

I liked Gardiner's
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique controversial, at that time,( enhanced tempos) using period instruments.

 

I agree with the Zinman recommendation above and I also enjoy the Solti.

 

I can't recall how many 9th's were ruined by the vocalists (or the balance between voice and orchestra) in the final movement.

My advice, go with the more famous versions and start with the final movement and hear what singers work for you.

 

Beethoven would have been a great present day rocker..........



I'm with hvbias as far as the "Charles Munch on RCA Living Stereo for a burning down the house performance."

 

Funny, I have both of those cycles; Zinman on CD, Solti on vinyl.

 

I've only listened to six or seven versions, but for my money, Karl Böhm and the Wiener Philharmoniker (CD on Deutsche Grammophon 427 196-2; 1970) nail this twelve ways to Sunday. Normally with a work like this, I'd immediately go to the Berliner Philharmoniker, as their double bass section is world renown with good reason (and the Abbado version is very good), but Böhm/Wiener is just right to me. The notes don't explicitly indicate that it's a studio recording, but it certainly sounds as if it is.

I believe that this same version is also in the Deutsche Grammophon Symphonies/5 Overtures box, although I'm not certain of that.

 

There can't be just one 9th, of course, just like there can't be one Hamlet or Lear.

The deeper you go, the more you want. At some point, you'll get to the great Furtwängler recordings, the "dark" 1942 Berlin, and the 1951 Bayreuth (and the 1954 Bayreuth and the 1954 Lucerne). The sonics are of their time, but these are a revelation. All the others mentioned above are worth exploring, too. There's really no end to it.

 

Lots of great recordings (thankfully) of the 9th. My go-to is Fricsay's late 50's recording. I think it was Deutsche Grammophon's first stereo recording of the 9th.

 

This thread makes me want to listen to all my different versions of the 9th. I might just start tomorrow.

Btw, I started this year with attending a performance of the 9th at the Berliner Philharmonie on the 1st. Maybe not by a world class orchestra, but it's hard to beat the live experience.

 

I'm surprised that no one has recommended René Leibowitz' 9th on Chesky