Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra :: Beethoven: Symphonie No. 9

A Superior Version

Brian Keltner | Denver, CO USA | 08/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Let's first note the baseline merits of this version of Beethoven's great Ninth: 1)Unsurpassed sound quality (DDD digital) and engineering; 2) Superior orchestra (the great Berlin Philharmonic) and vocals; 3) Superior conductor and interpreter of Germanic classical/romantic music, including Beethoven (Karajan); Superior recording label (Deutsche Grammophone). These are facts and beyond disputation. And attempting to dispute them is rather like insisting that the sky is green. Anyone familiar with the world of recorded classical music knows this. On these merits alone, is this version an easy top-drawer choice.



Above and beyond these merits, one enters the world of musical interpretation and personal preference when attempting to choose a "better" version of this piece. In reading the various reviews here and for other versions of the Ninth available on Amazon, I am amused that here a review rants about this or that conductor's interpretation--as if there is ONE correct interpretation of this piece, and, further, that the particular reviewer's OWN preference is the "best." Nonsense! And what egocentrism and musical snobbery! That this symphony can be and has been interpreted in different excellent ways by different excellent conductors in various recordings over the decades, is to me a statement about its epic artistic depth.



Having so written, I personally prefer this version of Karajan's interpretation (he's made several very good recordings). There is a distinct perpetual, highly measured, relentless--yet tightly controlled rather than flamboyant--intensity overall here that, I think, is a highly worthy rendering of what Beethoven himself intended when he chose its key of D minor. Review other pieces in that key (e.g., Bach's 'Tocatta and Fugue' and 'Dorian' tocatta and fugue organ pieces) and you'll see what I mean. No other conductor that I've come across has captured that style better than Karajan, for this symphony. It strikes me as intrinsically "Germanic" in the way one might think of "German Engineering" (perhaps it's Karajan's engineering background)--not Wagnerian, though Wagner himself drew inspiration from the Ode to Joy as a musical possibility in paving Romantic ground. Remember, Beethoven was bridging the symphonial gap between the classical and romantic forms by the time he wrote his Ninth in 1828, and so it is a hybrid. Yet the D minor key and a certain classical (as opposed to romantic) formalism remains the melodic and measured structure around which the entire symphony was built. And Karajan, I believe, captured this best on this particular recording. In fact I could argue that only Karajan, being Karajan, could so capture. But I won't. :-)"

I'm rewriting my review for this Karajan Ninth, I'm now givi

dv_forever | Michigan, USA | 11/05/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was a bit too hasty to discredit this very fine recording by Karajan in my earlier review which I have now erased. The thing is, this recording is actually quite good. It is pretty much the same Karajan standard you are used to from earlier recordings of the 1960's and 1970's. The biggest advantage this Karajan Gold 9th has over it's predecessors is the digital sound which has great impact. The climaxes in the first movement especially are audacious, Karajan obviously going for broke. This has just about as much intensity in the first movement as Karajan's famous 1962 recording and trumps the 1977 version quite handily.



The famous 1962 performance was a tour-de-force, truly exceptional. The biggest problem with that record was it's dispersed, somewhat muzzy sound for the chorus in the finale, plus some of the instrumental detail, like the timpani, was obscured by Karajan's over emphasis on the strings. I think this was a fault of the recorded sound, not just a case of the famous Karajan string soup.



The famous 1977 performance was also great but suffers from sound problems of a different sort. There the sound was recorded up close and personal which gave you some gutsy timpani playing but lacked a natural acoustic, especially in the grand finale, which had the soloists and chorus claustophobically miked up close and shouting in your ears! Plus the performance lacked some of the sheer inspiration of the 1962 account.



This final Karajan 9th is digital and the sound is finally fixed up to a high standard, not the finest in the world, but certainly among the best I've heard for the 9th. Karajan's performance is full of power and maniacal energy in the first two movements with plenty of instrumental detail, timpani, brass, woodwinds, strings. The adagio is gorgeous too, so once again we fall on the finale, is it do or die? The sound is so much better here in the chorus than Karajan's earlier versions. The chorus is not distant or dispersed, nor is it up close and claustrophobic, it's set in a perfectly natural acoustic, sounds massive and extremely powerful, some of the climaxes will obliterate your stereo! The biggest hurdle here is the soloists, they are too lightweight compared to the great, starry names from the 1962 recording. Here on the digital version, Jose Van Dam isn't dark enough, he's not a bass. The soprano is wobbly, the mezzo is much better. Vinson Cole the tenor is too light and sounds like a young boy. Those are basically the demerits of this 9th, it is spectacular in many places and worth owning, not just for Karajan fans but all who care about this immortal Beethoven masterpiece. If you can live with the not so great soloists, you'll find this to be a fantastic recording.





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