Beethoven, L. van: Symphony No. 9, "Choral"

It won't be long before nobody knows who wrote the Ode to Joy. From the loftiest state occasion to the lowliest ring tone, the Ode to Joy has permeated international culture for the past two centuries, and, soon, even perhaps in our lifetime, nobody will remember who wrote it. Of course, everybody will know who wrote Beethoven's Ninth; like da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the artist and the artwork are fused in the cultural mind. But the Ode to Joy melody -- that simple, straight-through-the-heart melody that everybody can sing and nobody can forget -- has become the theme song for humanity's aspirations and its intervals and rhythms are now part of our collective DNA.
That said, is there need for another recorded performance of the Ninth? It depends on the interpretation. Stanislaw Skrowaczewski's interpretation is all about clarity, about elucidating the lines, illuminating the harmonies, and revealing the structure, about letting everything in the score be heard ideally balanced and perfectly projected. Imagine Toscanini's Ninth without the insatiable fury or Szell's Ninth without the ineluctable force and you'll have some idea what to expect interpretively. This doesn't mean Skrowaczewski's Ninth altogether lacks warmth or passion -- there are portions of the Finale as heartswelling as the best ever recorded -- but much of it seems too objective. His Allegro ma non troppo is perhaps too lean, his Molto vivace is possibly too swift, his Adagio molto e cantabile is probably too cool, and too much of his Finale is too discursive: the quotations in the introduction seem superfluous and the Turkish March seems superficial. But in the heaven-spanning chorale, the heaven-storming double fugue and especially in the ever-accelerating coda, Skrowaczewski and the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and the four soloists are suddenly transformed by joy, touch the eternal and the infinite. Thus, while not one of the immortal Ninths, Skrowaczewski's Ninth is still worth hearing. Oehms' sound is clear and clean, but big and a bit boomy.