Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have over 120 recordings of Beethoven's 9th in my collection and jumped at purchasing this one as soon as it came on the market. Sadly, my experience wasn't all that I thought it might have been. Artistically, I don't know why this particular recording needed to be released, as it simply drags along with no sense of momentum or rubato. I've heard significantly better performances of this work from conductors and ensembles that I'd never before heard of. As far as the recording goes ... well, from the other reviews here, I had come to expect much better. I have a high-end listening system, complete with a solid-state headphone amplifier and Denon D-7000 headphones, and I found the sound to be terribly muddy and indistinct. As I assumed, the recording performed similarly on my surround-sound set-up, as well.

In the end, I would suggest that you think twice before purchasing this recording. If you really want to buy a recording of Beethoven's 9th with Blu-ray sound definition, I would recommend the recently-released Christian Thielemann set. Artistically, it has tremendously more to say than this performance, and the sound-quality is among the best I've heard. Moreover, with the Thielemann Blu-ray, you get to actually SEE the conductor and ensemble(s) at work (the set listed here is only audio).

I am sorry to admit that i cannot make any sense of the editorial review.
Is it a history of judaism? No
Does it contain any relevant information to the blu ray disc or its musical content? No
Is there an ode to jewish freedom by Ludwig von Beethoven? No
The only hits you get on search engines for this are the amazon links for this disc.
Oh wait, it is a new trick by Alexander Jero, the recording artist whom you can admire in a sleeveless shirt on the disc cover, so he can attack any bad reviewer by making him into an antisemit.
Pls take the time to read through the comments of the 1 star reviews and find out for yourselves.

I cannot believe how utterly amateurish is the packaging and presentation for this expensive product. When I opened the Amazon package I initially thought that I must have been sent a cheap and dodgy bootleg product.

The is a recordable (burned) DVD disc with an inkjet printed label - and there is no booklet or liner note information, just the 5 chapter descriptions and the instruction "for more information about this recording please visit www.music-blu-ray.com" (and from that site there are no details of the musicians, or the methodology of the recording).

The surround sound (in 7.1) is impressive, but my immediate impression is that it's too fast to be enjoyable. As a teenager I feel in love with the '62 Karajan version, and that's the one I'll continue to enjoy in confidence for the rest of my life (even though it is, naturally enough, an analogue stereo recording). Quality of performance trumps pure spectacle in the value of a recording any day.

I will listen through the Jero recording just once - hoping to find a physical fault which justifies sending it back for a refund.

i have purchased 4 or 5 recordings all blu ray from this manufacturer (they go by two names that i am aware of ) all had terrable audio, most did not play at all, most were returned .. this is the only review i have ever written guess i should write a review of the many very fine recordings i have purchased probably more than 75 are blu ray format