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Beethoven: Symphony No 9 / Tennstedt, Popp, Murray, Johnson, Pape, Et Al


Release Date: 02/24/2009 
Label:  Lpo   Catalog #: 26   Spars Code: n/a 
Composer:  Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer:  Ann Murray,  Lucia Popp,  René Pape,  Anthony Rolfe Johnson
Conductor:  Klaus Tennstedt
Orchestra/Ensemble:  London Philharmonic Choir,  London Philharmonic Orchestra
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 12 Mins. 

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Notes and Editorial Reviews



BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 • Klaus Tennstedt, cond; Lucia Popp (sop); Ann Murray (alt); Anthony Rolfe Johnson (ten); René Pape (bs); London PO & Ch • LPO 26 (71:58) Live: London 10/8/1992


Great art is almost always ambiguous, not in the pejorative sense of being unclear, but in the far more important one of carrying multiple meanings that enable a wide latitude in interpretation. With its uncommonly broad tempos in the first three movements, this performance offers an Read more approach that many may not favor, unless, of course, they consider Furtwängler’s conception the ideal. To be sure (as readers of Fanfare are probably aware), I don’t see it so, at least not as an ideal to be emulated. That said, this release, in its Furtwänglerian style, comprises one of the most arresting accounts of the music to come my way. For one thing, its engineering is extraordinary, even by the standards of 1992: exceptionally accurate in timbre and wide in dynamic range, it also boasts a richness of detail that is rarely encountered in a recording (live or studio). The first movement is quite literally terrifying in its eruptive brashness and aptly spooky in its harmonic vagueness. The second movement (omitting both repeats and Weingartner’s often-favored emendations) is at once demonic and (in its trio) ethereal. Among the many, many Ninths I’ve heard, only Solti’s third movement, at 20 minutes, outdoes the breadth of this one, which is slightly slower than Furtwängler’s. Yet Tennstedt’s pace proves riveting, a gentle delicacy often complementing the favored expansiveness. The finale is less extreme, most notably toward the conclusion of its coda, where Tennstedt avoids the hysterical hash that stamps Furtwängler’s work. And the soloists are fine, although Pape falls into the trap of making Schiller’s “Freunde” in the opening recitative sound like “Fleunde.” Throughout the entire performance one encounters a textural focus, often blurred in other versions, that contributes to the overall impact of this reading, creating a kind of arresting incisiveness that has nothing to do with sheer haste. For those who prefer the fleeter accounts of Toscanini, Szell, or Karajan, this one may well prove—in every sense of the term—a welcome change of pace.


FANFARE: Mortimer H. Frank
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Works on This Recording

1. Symphony no 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral" by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer:  Ann Murray (Mezzo Soprano), Lucia Popp (Soprano), René Pape (Bass),
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Tenor)
Conductor:  Klaus Tennstedt
Orchestra/Ensemble:  London Philharmonic Choir,  London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Classical 
Written: 1822-1824; Vienna, Austria 

Sound Samples

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, "Choral": I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, "Choral": II. Molto vivace
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, "Choral": III. Adagio molto e cantabile - Andante moderato
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, "Choral": IV. Finale: Presto - Allegro assai

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