Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral'

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony add to their acclaimed Beethoven discography with the monumental Ninth “Choral” Symphony, released in premium audio Hybrid SACD format.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the Grammy award-winning San Francisco Symphony release an all-new recording of Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony. From its stormy opening to the towering fourth movement, Beethoven’s final and perhaps greatest symphony is also one of the most universally loved. The album features the Grammy award-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus, bass-baritone Nathan Berg, tenor William Burden, mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen, and soprano Erin Wall. Beethoven’s Ninth is the latest addition to the San Francisco Symphony’s Beethoven discography, and is presented in premium audio hybrid SACD.

This title was released for the first time in 1999 and was one of the first to use Jonathan del Mar's edition in which textual errors and ambiguities are corrected.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony remains to this day the only work that does not belong to the Bayreuth canon or the 'Wagner Ten', so to speak – and yet has nevertheless been performed on the Green Hill along with them. Both within and without the Bayreuth walls, the performance history of this symphony is associated with no conductor more than with Wilhelm Furtwängler. The opening performance of the first post-War Bayreuth Festival in 1951 was of Beethoven’s Ninth under Furtwängler, and there already exists an ORFEO release based on the original radio broadcast. Several technical hurdles had to be overcome before the performance of 1954 could also be released on CD, however, for none of the accessible sources could be prepared satisfactorily without employing the most modern mastering possibilities. The result is undoubtedly a vital document: both for those interested in the history of the Bayreuth Festival and for those who are enthused by the concurrent continuity and constant change that is a hallmark of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s style of interpretation. This Ninth would be his farewell to Bayreuth and was in fact one of his very last concerts anywhere, for it took place just three months before his death. Its interpretation is more direct and less ceremonial than in earlier recordings under this great conductor. In the last bars of this symphony’s famous choral finale he achieves a climax not just through his scorching pace, but also through a well-nigh breathless intensification of the musical content. The Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra and the solo quartet (led by the Dutch soprano Gré Brouwenstijn, here in magnificent voice) follow the maestro’s beat even here with an unmistakeable sense of tension and the utmost, unrelenting attention. It is surely herein that lies the secret of the fascination that Furtwängler exudes even now. As perhaps no other conductor he always understood how to avoid the routine in works that he conducted so many times. Instead he was time and again able to summon up and maintain an awareness of them as something extraordinary and unique: for himself, his fellow musicians and his listeners.

Fritz Wunderlich frequently sang the tenor part in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on Schiller’s “Ode to joy”, but he never recorded it on LP. His contribution makes this live recording of a 1962 concert at the Hessischer Rundfunk a rarity and closes a gap in the discographic legacy of the singer who died so prematurely. Wunderlich’s cantabile performance style ennobles the tenor solo in the “alla Marcia“ style, and he smoothly blends into the excellent line-up of soloists: Shige Yano (soprano), Marga Höffgen (alto) and Theo Adam (bass-baritone). The conductor is Dean Dixon, the first Afro-American to hold the post of chief conductor (1961-1974) of a German Radio Symphony Orchestra.

One of the great documents from conductor Rudolph Kempe's Munich period is this overwhelming version of Beethoven's Ninth with a set of hand-picked soloists, made in 1973, three years before Kempe's death. The pinnacle of a great conducting career with one of the most powerful works in the entire repertoire.

Produced by EMI Classics in partnership with the prestigious National Gallery in London, The National Gallery Collection is a budget-price catalogue series bringing together the very best in fine art and classical music.

The collection features a selection of classical masterworks in celebrated recordings from the EMI Classics catalogue, brought together with great artworks from The National Gallery’s permanent collection.