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| DG (Mid price) (CD) 423 204-2GMW (67 minutes: ADD). Also issued as (Cassette) 423 204-4GMW. Text and translation included. From SLPM138807/8 (2/63). |
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| EMI Studio (Mid price) (CD) CDM7 69030-2 (68 minutes: ADD). Also issued as (Cassette) EG769030-4. Text and translation included. From SLS5178 (11/79). |
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Jochum at his inspirational best deserves better sound and better playing than he is provided with in this 1979 EMI account of the Ninth, a point rather cruelly underlined by the CD issue. It is true that the LSO players, the winds in particular have here a grainy quality that is a matter of tone quality and tuning, but the often acidulous sound extends to the strings (the basses in the finale's recitatives) and to the choir (very sibilant on words like "Kuss") and is sadly at odds with the late romantic glow that Jochum imparts to the music, to the slow movement in particular. The performance, though traditional in many respects blends the very nicest judgement (the pacing of the second movement Trio) with often very fierce tempos where the music blazes out with a newborn zeal and wonderment. For much of the time Jochum carries the LSO gloriously along with him, but there are numerous small lapses of ensemble which are irritating on repeated hearings.
Jochum's quartet of soloists is generally first rate, but not even Dame Kiri manages to supress memories, now freshly activated, of Gundula Janowitz's sensationally lovely ascent to the high B in Karajan's 1962 Berlin recording. It remains in every sense the high point of the performance. As William Mann's session reports made clear ("Was die Mauer frech geteilt", December 1962, pages 283-5), Karajan spent an inordinate amount of time on the finale, to generally remarkable effect. This is also the Ninth most obviously influenced by Toscanini; Karajan even had the Toscanini records in the control room with him for reference when things got difficult. The initially distant balance of the choir in the finale threatens to undo all the good work but things seem to get better as the movement progresses in a performance of real fire and brilliance, truly 'feuertrunken'.
Tape background has not been entirely eradicated and is very obvious at the start of the symphony. This and the recessed rather reverberant sound takes the edge off one's pleasure in Karajan's fluently dramatic reading. So, despite Janowitz (and her distinguished colleagues), I would not think of putting this version ahead of Karajan's 1977 Ninth, also at mid price (DG 415 832-2GGA 4/87), or the Masur (Philips midprice 420 701-2PSL, 12/87). Meanwhile, Karajan's favourite Ninth, Toscanini's, is now on CD from RCA (RD85396, 3/88) and not to be missed; though as one correspondent pointed out after I recommended it on BBC Radio 3's "Building a Library" you may need a stiff whisky before playing the first movement which is unusually fraught even by Toscanini's normal standards.
RO