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

Singing too poor for five stars

Tom Gauterin | Loughborough, Leics. United Kingdom | 08/03/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I agree with all the other people who have reviewed this item that it is both one of the best-played and most exciting versions available(did somebody give the timpani a microphone to themselves at the end?),but I feel that the singing of the Viennese choir is really rather disappointing. Granted, the balance is not very helpful to the choir, but given that the Wiener Singverein are a professional body, their tone, not to mention the simple virtue of actually getting the notes right, leaves much to be desired. I realise that the choral singing in this symphony is pitched uncomfortably high in the human register, but one has only to listen to recordings by Bohm, Mackerras and particularly Gardiner(whose Monteverdi Choir excel themselves) to realise firstly that the notes are not impossible to sing and, secondly, the improvement that really good choral singing makes to the finale of the 9th. None of the recordings I have mentioned display any of the irritating squeaking shown by the Viennese sopranos. Unfortunately, no recording has yet appeared of Beethoven's 9th that combines brilliant orchestral playing, top-quality choral singing and sensible(i.e. not period-performance) tempi. This last point has been a controversial one in recent years and, generally, period speeds give added excitement. The problem is that a 12-minute slow movement(cf. nearly 17 minutes on the recording under review)makes conveying any sense of repose nigh-impossible. Really, one has to choose between this recording and Bohm's first(better singing but orchestral playing less polished) version for the best Beethoven 9 around at the moment. One word of warning- don't get Bohm's second attempt by mistake; it is dreadfully slow(79 minutes!), to the point where the only joyful bit about the finale is when it has finally finished."

The perfect ninth - except for the chorus singing.

P. Rah | Sion, Switzerland | 10/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always (fanatically) admired the BPO and Herr von Karajan's recordings - it has become one of my missions in life to collect all of his recordings, whether they are bad or not. But for this recording, I am not biased. This is the 3rd of Karajan's five or six recordings of the Ninth, and what a result! Many people have commented that this is the best of his ninth's and particularly the 3rd mvmt has been singled out for its beauty. I completely agree. It is by far the most spiritual reading from Karajan and one of the most definitive recordings of this work, in terms of sound, playing etc., except for the chorus. The Wiener Singverein are apallingly out of tune and the sopranos are very squawky, but all this does NOT detract it from being a 5-star CD. At least they sing with passion. The singing of Sintow, Baltsa, Schreier and Van Dam are simply to die for. Karajan was famous for being a very good voice-picker (and voice-wrecker), and in here it is no exception. Sintow is just heavenly, Baltsa taut, Schreier pure and Van Dam heroic. They sing together with sheer joy, and so do the Berliner Philharmoniker: they give one of their most committed performances on disc. The last movement is played with warmth and passion and the coda is extremely fast (but always under control) and it makes the whole thing joyful and triumphant. The ensemble is always spot-on and amazingly fiery for a studio recording. The timpanist at the coda of the last movement seems to have been given free rein, as I have never heard such bashing of the drums in the ninth. Sonically, this is a great DG recording, but the chorus is too closely and dryly recorded, and I wish that the tonmeister would have given more room for the woodwinds in the coda of the last mvmt, because the woodwinds are very important in this symphony rhythmically. But, I have noticed that in his 3 recordings for DG, Karajan emphasised different sections of the orchestra for each recording. eg. for 1963, it was the string section that got the spotlight, in the 1977 the brass and percussion, and in 1984 the bass section. So it could be said that even at this stage, Karajan was experimenting with sonical implications in a sound recording. It is a damn good success generally, and I can safely bet that one will not get a more fiery studio Ninth anywhere. Buy it for the sake of the Solo singing and the perfect playing of BPO!!"