Search - Beethoven, Schwarzkopf, Hongen :: Symphony 9

Wilhelm Furtwängler's Beethoven has its fanatical admirers who run around collecting horrible-sounding broadcast air checks of just about every performance he gave. Dubious as this practice may be for normal people, his performances of the Ninth were special. It may be that Beethoven's score served merely as the starting point for what the conductor actually did with the music, but it doesn't matter. More than anyone else, Furtwängler made this piece into a sort of cosmic musical event, and this quality is amply in evidence here. You owe it to yourself to hear it. --David Hurwitz