Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 "Choral"; Choral Fantasy; Ah, Perfido

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It took me over a year to find this at a reasonable price, and it was worth the effort. This has the Ormandy recording of the 9th. What else can I say? The Ormandy recording in current release is seriously flawed. In that recording you can hear dropouts and saturation in the original analog tape recording, the second movement has the repeats edited out and the third movement has pops and clicks like a vinyl recording. A serious disappointment. This recording has no such flaws. It is excellently engineered as well as a typically flawless performance as you expect from Ormandy. The price on the used market is quite high but if you want the Ormandy recording of the 9th, this is the one you want, not the one in current release.

Sony has long-ago relegated this release to the cut-out bins and high price resale market. It is such a unqiue Beethoven compliation. The 9th with Ormandy and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Choral Fantasy with Serkin (a staple of his) with Bernstein, and Schippers with Regine Crispin in Ah, Perfido!

Ormandy needs no defense from me, but this is a wonderful performance - detailed, propulsive, expertly played, and then there is the MTC - my lord, how far we are from the business of recording, and the planning that goes into a great recording. Imagine, bringing the MTC to Philadelphia to record their ten minute contribution! And then the remarkable work of the producer and recording engineers who were able to control that wall of sound coming from the 250 voices of the choir but still allowing the orchestral details to come through clearly. What Richad P. Condie did with that choir in the 60s still amazes me. There are many naysayers where the choir is concerned, but just ask thm to listen to this performance.

Finally, the remaining choral pieces are far from make-weights. IMHO, this is a significant Sony/Beethoven relase that should never have gone out of print!

This is exciting. When it starts you think it'll be too slow--but no, it's a great pace. The whole thing is set up marvelously. And it continues to build and build. At about 8:15 you'll hear as thrilling a minute as you could ever ask for. While I agree with Mr DuHamel that the engineering was excellent, you'll find yourself wishing for digital and better miking, as the bass is fairly rumbly and the percussion is not crisp, though you still get the feeling of both. You'll also wish for more high end. Nevertheless, like I said, the feeling is there. As to the interpretation, it's one of those amazing ones where even if it isn't what you'd do in spots, you totally appreciate and accept it. For instance, at about 14:00, I'd slow down pretty dramatically on that little cadence just before the final slide into the coda. But for Ormandy, there's too much pressure to get on with it, so he doesn't linger, and that's fine.

Did you ever hear a nicer tempo for the 2nd movement? Goodness, it's positively rolling & rollicking. Again, you'll be wishing the solo instruments and timpani stood out more, but what are you going to do? The meaning is there. Did you catch those rests?

The opening of the 3rd movement is heartbreaking. And it just...continues. The individual instruments are clearer in this movement, perhaps because the overall dynamic is lower.

Superb opening of 4th. 'Course, the bass violins introducing the theme stress out the technology of the day. The whole movement is a challenge, naturally. Back to the rendition, you have to love it. Don't you love that big drum & cymbal in the march? As the big guns (the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) move in you have to wonder at the recording. It is pretty amazing it is as clear as it is. You do lose the poor piccolo in the finale, alas. And most of the triangle. Alas, but still.

I was surprised to read the recording was done at the Philadelphia Hotel.

I even like the portrait of Beethoven on the booklet. Kind of a Mona Lisa look. If anyone knows the artist I'd like to know who it is.

I agree 100% with Mr. DuHamel's review: with a reduction in heavy reverberation and a more natural balance, it's incredible what a difference the remastering makes in this version of Ormandy's Ninth! Maybe it isn't worth spending $49 for a used CD or almost $100 for a new one, but this is one of the great performances of the Ninth: the sweep in Ormandy's phrasing of the bass-to-full-orchestra theme in the last movement is inimitable, as is his full-volume treatment of the "military" music for bass drum, triangle, and cymbals. The one flaw in this performance is the vocal quartet, especially the baritone in the section just before the coda; nothing can be done to eliminate that, but the engineering in this version mutes the men's voices to the best possible effect. Sony/CBS/Columbia should be urged in the strongest terms to substitute this remastering for their current "Great Performances" version of this recording -- and to issue Ormandy's entire Beethoven symphony cycle as a boxed set. (His superb-sounding Sony "Eroica" is available in Japan via HMV: why not here, too?)

Beethoven no es solo la 9ª, en lo que a obras corales se refiere, todos conocemos sus conciertos, sus sinfonias y todas aquellas grandes obras que lo han hecho famoso, asi que en ese aspecto este CD doble es una maravilla. La sinfonía Nº 9 "Coral" incluída en el primer CD es como sabran genial, maginifica, incomparable, ademas Ormandy junto a su Orquesta de Filadelfia hace de esta grabación algo único, desde el comienzo notaran que algo diferente hay, es una versión espectacular, el scherzo suena mas vivaz que nunca y el movimiento final con coro incluído es verdaderamente inolvidable.
La fantasia para piano, coro y orquesta es una pequeña maravilla claro que muy notoriamente una preparación para la 9ª, la gracia radica que el texto fue escrito por el propio Beethoven. Rudolf Serkin muy bien al piano al igual que el coro.
Ah perfido es una aria de gran belleza, simple pero exquicita. La cantata para el rey Joseph II es una obra funeraria, algo del tuba mirum del requiem de Verdi pareciera escucharse, es solemne y pausada, todo un homenaje.
La cantata "mar calmo y viaje prospero", es una obra destinada a bendecir el viaje y el cambio, es hermosa, es encantadora y una pequeña obra, que gracias a este CD podemos disfrutar.
La Filarmonica de Nueva York hace el trabajo como corresponde y sabe hacer y bajo la batuta de dos grandes Bernstein y Schippers. Boulez es de los grandes y con mucha gracia y pulcritud dirige a la Nueva Filarmonia. Los coros y los solistas al mas alto nivel. Como pocos CDs incluye éste un conjunto de pequeñas obras de las que pocas veces encontraran en el mercado.