Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 ~ Mehta

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As far as live recordings of Beethoven go, this one delivers a knockout punch to ANY of the competition. Recorded in late 1983, this full digital CD has much to offer, with very little to be seen as anything but stupendous. To begin with, the New York Philharmonic is at its very best for this piece under the baton of maestro Mehta. His conducting is subtle, and even (dare I say it?) light. He sweetens the musical phrases to pure perfection in the First movement, and allows for the pathos of the Second to come shining through. The Fourth movement is breathtaking, with such an attention to shading, and orchestral color thatone is left almost breathless. This is no heavy teutonic reading which believes that the only correct volume for this piece is FORTISSIMO. This is supple and very well balanced. As for the singers, they are every bit up to the challenge that Maestro Mehta has put them. Salminen is as basso-profundoish as ever, and resounds splendidly in the acoustics of Avery Fisher Hall. Marliyn Horne is one of the few Mezzo/Altos who refuses to be vocally outdone in a recording of the 9th, she sounds superb here, as the twilight of her major career was upon her. The same can be said for Margaret Price, who, although not at the end of her career, has such wonderful flexiblity of tone, and does not SCREETCH on the high notes, but handles them with grace and precision. Jon Vickers is the ideal choice of any tenor for this vocal part, and performes with tremendous heroic tone, even if he is a little more wobbly than in his earlier days, it is more than made up for in the sheer power of his voice. All in all, a little bit of magic preserved on disc.

Zubin Mehta has squandered golden opportunities to record a complete Beethoven cycle with any orchestra from L.A. to Tel Aviv, New York to Berlin. Over four decades he's made only a handful of Beethoven symphony recordings, preferring to concentrate instead on being the accompanist for various pianists and violinists in the Beethoven concertos--odd.

This proficient Ninth Sym. from 1983 comes off as a very good night at Avery Fisher Hall. Mehta remains insistently middle-of-the-road. He sets moderate tempos and keeps to them, and his preferred volume level is a steady mezzo-forte except in climaxes. I wish he wouldn't goose-step through several of the big choral entries in the finale, but it adds to the visceral excitement he obviously wanted there.

Mehta's not one for nuance, yet as I listened I found myself appreciating his sensible ways. He's helped by the New York Phil. in good form--not great, as some reviewers claim. The professional Choral Artists in the finale are excellent, and a quarter of big-name soloists delivers. Vickers and Horne both shout, but Mehta is enouccraging larger-than-life singing from everyone, so they don't stand out too badly. One searches for any personal ideas about the Ninth, any mystery or tears. They aren't to be found, but as a solid professional performance, this mid-price RCA relwase is satisfying.

Zubin Mehta's Ninth was nothing special when it was first released in the `90s and its musical value has only diminished over time. On paper, it seems like a soloist dream team but the women, especially Price, are past their prime while Vicker's voice had darkened so as to rob the Turkish march of some of its inherent heroics. The Philharmonic is it's usual professional collective self but internal balances are not fantastic and string attacks are not always as clean as they should be. Add to this Avery Fisher's tubby and awkward acoustics and you can get the general idea.

And what of the man at the podium? It is certainly nice to have a recording of Mehta performing Beethoven, but he does not do anything special that makes this performance necessary for collectors acquire. The recapitultory climax in the first movement is excessively bloated, the scherzo sounds somewhat lead-footed due to the general lack of rhythmic crispness, and the adagio suffers due to the oddly distant sounding winds, especially the clarinets. One need not look far to find better Ninths. RCA's recording with Gunter Wand is as fine a recording as any and Sony's Szell is rightly a classic. Those that like Mehta's high calorie way with this music will find Karajan a more rewarding experience while newer Ninths from the likes of Barenboim and Vanska give us not only better playing and sound but also the new Bärenreiter edition.

Very briefly, I own perhaps 4 or 5 performances of the great 9th. This one is surely the best. The orchestra, chorus, Mehta's interpretation, are all outstanding. But the quartet is the best I've ever heard, and no wonder, Vickers, Horn, Price, and Salminen. Few operas at the Met have such a wondrous cast. As for the sound, not having read the CD jacket, I was startled to hear applause at the end. No other hint 'til then that it was live. If fate deals you the sad hand of having only one performance of the ninth, this is the one to have. I hope you have a player on that desert island. Bill

This is a live recording and feels like one. The tempo is on the brisk side and the musical pulse is strong. Mehta paints the music with thick brush and the orchestra responds with a big heart. This is a bold playing and I like it. The first movement moves swiftly and excitingly. The second movement also swaggers powerfully. The third is still moving forward well without slighting its lyrical element. The finale has a sense of a live occasion and it gives the music a festive and joyful feeling. The chorus and soloists sing their hearts out and the music ends with a tremendous power of celebration.

It is on a bottom-priced CD. But the sound is big and bold, just like the music making. This is a rare bargain that has every merit.

This is a great all-digital recording of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. I usually like my Beethoven played fast and this version clocks in at just under 69 minutes, a full two or three minutes faster than most other recordings I have heard. This recording is more in the Toscaninni tradition than the von Karajan tradition. Mehta is my new favorite, I prefer this now to my previous standard, a recording by Michael Tilson Thomas. Bravo!

Alright, so I bought this recording only because I was overjoyed to discover that the soloists in the Ode to Joy finale include bass Mati Salminen, mezzo soprano Marilyn Horne, soprano Margaret Price and tenor Jon Vickers, all of these outstanding operatic singers I have enjoyed on record. These singers are doing a fine job with the Finale, despite what has already been said about their rolling R's and sloppy diction and the fact that Marilyn Horne refused to be outdone by the soprano and sings fortissimo. The conducting by Zubin Mehta is excellent. This symphony is more along the lines of a last classical great and Mehta does not pull all the stops that Karajan, Bernstein or even Solti did with their interpretations. Mehta is a very soulful and passionate conductor whose focus was to remain as true to the composer's original concept as possible. The music is clean, consistent and bright.

The only tragedy of this recording is that the recording sound is not good. The bad acoustics in the concert hall may be to blame. The sound is distant and faint, and there is no crisp freshness to it at all. However, I remain hopeful that this recording may be reissued and digitally remastered. As it stands now, it is the cheapest budget-wise and so remains in the Silver label of the RCA company and not the Red Seal which is the top. So for one thing you still get the same great Ninth- a thunderous and climatic beginning, a thrilling scherzo, an achingly heartbreaking and divine slow movement "adagio cantabile" which seems to me like a floating soul in space, and the powerful finale in which Beethoven seem to say that humanity has hope after all- you also get a recording that is not superior in quality. Really, the only reasons you should get this recording is if you are 1: a fan of conductor Zubin Mehta and collect all his records or 2: if youre a fan of the singers tenor Jon Vickers and his Wagnerian type voice, Marilyn Horne and her powerful mezzo di voce, Margaret Price and her gleaming soprano voice or the deep bass of Marti Salminen.

STICK TO THESE RECORDINGS FOR THE BEST NINTHS: GEORGE SOLTI's 1972 Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording, HERBERT VON KARAJAN's 1975 Berlin Philharmonic recording or his later 80's one, Leonard Bernstein's 1989 Berlin Wall concert, or Furtwangler's 1951 Bayreuth re-opening concert found on the Legendary Recordings.