Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

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This marvelous performance is reproduced in superb, lifelike sound, full of impact but without any sense of artificial enhancement. Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan have given us an... — Fanfare, March/April 2020 More…

Release Date: 1st Nov 2019
Catalogue No: BIS2451
Label: BIS
Length: 66 minutes

Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2019

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral'

Work length1:06:24

$14.15

$21.95

$29.75

Ann-Helen Moen (soprano), Marianne Beate Kielland (alto), Allan Clayton (tenor), Neal Davies (bass)
Bach Collegium Japan, Bach Collegium Japan Chorus
Masaaki Suzuki

I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso (Live)

Track length14:31

$2.05

$3.85

$5.25

II. Scherzo. Molto vivace - Presto (Live)

Track length14:13

$2.05

$3.85

$5.25

III. Adagio molto e cantabile (Live)

Track length14:33

$2.05

$3.85

$5.25

IVa. Finale. Presto (Live)

Track length2:37

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IVb. Finale. Allegro assai (Live)

Track length3:21

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IVc. Finale. Presto II (Live)

Track length3:28

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IVd. Finale. Allegro molto assai. Alla marcia (Live)

Track length3:52

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IVe. Finale. Andante maestoso (Live)

Track length3:02

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IVf. Finale. Allegro energico, sempre ben marcato (Live)

Track length2:13

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IVg. Finale. Allegro ma non tanto (Live)

Track length2:14

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IVh. Finale. Prestissimo (Live)

Track length2:20

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

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Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Tolstoy’s War and Peace – those works of art that are truly part of the canon of global culture are few and far apart. In music, one work that holds significance for people all over the world is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and especially its choral finale. Even today, as we are getting ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of its creator, the sheer size and complexity of the symphony is daunting.

There are some eyewitness accounts from the first performance at the Kärntner-Tor-Theater in Vienna on 7th May 1824: we know for instance that Beethoven was on stage himself throughout the performance, but that owing to his deafness he did not notice the audience’s overwhelming enthusiasm. What the Ninth sounded like that evening in Vienna is something we will never know, however – which is why hearing it in a historically informed performance on period instruments is all the more enlightening. With impeccable credentials from their 65-disc series of Bach’s complete cantatas, and acclaimed recent recordings of Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki now give us their rendering of Beethoven’s last and greatest symphony, joined by a fine quartet of vocal soloists.

Reviews

March/April 2020

This marvelous performance is reproduced in superb, lifelike sound, full of impact but without any sense of artificial enhancement. Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan have given us an historically informed recording of the Beethoven Ninth that conveys the drama, humanity, and transformative release of this incomparable work. I will return to it often, and always with keen anticipation.

May/June 2020

Suzuki’s new recording gives you period performance clarity without period performance compromises and can be strongly recommended.

14th November 2019

an enjoyably forceful, at times properly stormy performance that is let down only by some of the choral tuning in the final movement.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

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