“I, too, am a king!” -- Beethoven
(Said to Holz, when the latter begged him not to sell the ring which King Frederick William III, of Prussia, had sent to him instead of money or an order in return for the dedication of the ninth symphony. “Master, keep the ring,” Holz had said, “it is from a king.” Beethoven made his remark “with indescribable dignity and self-consciousness.”)
Best Available Recording
This is a difficult call, to be sure; many great conductors and orchestras (not to mention an even larger number of not-so-great conductors and orchestras) have recorded Beethoven's Ninth, one of the most famous of all classical works. Still, recognizing our obligation to our readers, we hereby state that we believe that the best available recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is the May 10, 1991 recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti conducting.
There are other famous recordings of Beethoven's Ninth, including Furtwangler's, Klemperer's, Stokowski's, etc., and all have points to recommend them. There's even another Solti recording, done later, which might be a bit better from a purely technological standpoint, but is different from this one in terms of energy.
Of course, there's nothing terribly wrong with owning more than one recorded version of this immortal work. At some point - and this will sound exceedingly odd, until you've reached the point of which I am about to speak - you'll almost have to get Furtwangler's recording as well, or at least listen to it a few times, just to see (hear) what all the fuss is about.
Before you ever reach that point, get the Solti recording, and enjoy it.
Of related interest:
© 2005 Daniel McAdam. Please note: all applicable material on this website is protected by copyright law and may not be copied without express written permission.