New page, next Beethoven Symphony. The Ninth. The Big Kahuna.
DSD rip from Tower Japan SACD
There are many, many great recordings of The Ninth, but for me Ferenc Fricsay runs up the score on all them with his early stereo recording, with the Berlin Philharmonic made in the early sixties. The only possible downside is the DG stereo sound is not close to what RCA or Mercury were doing at time. Even Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (of whom I am no fan) is (mostly) on his best behavior. But really Fricsay is the star of the show. The way he highlights the woodwind parts in the ethereal first movement (which a lot times just sounds like a warm up exercise) to the absolute precision of rhythm and articulation in the 2nd to the way he coaxes the last measure of unutterable beauty from the slow movement, to the heroic finale which becomes a runaway freight train in the very best possible way.
There are a lot of really cool things about Beethoven, starting with the very first chord of his first symphony is a dissonance. And the last 20 seconds of his last symphony, after the magnificent setting of Schiller's Hymn to a joyous vision of humanity, is a bit of a shambles. Like Beethoven is saying there are no easy answers and even in the best case things are going to be a little messy. YMMV.