Beethoven: Symphony No.9 [Hybrid SACD, SACD]

Following my purchase (and review) of the 4th and 7th symphonies in this series, I have acquired the other discs, culminating in this, the ninth symphony. I am pleased to be able to report that my initial very positive view was maintained for the series.
Why not five stars? In my review of the 4th and 7th symphonies, I intimated that the 9th would be the greatest test. For me, the chamber orchestra interpretation of these symphonies works perfectly well until the last movement of the ninth, in which I feel a longing for a larger ensemble, and more weight. It's obviously a personal thing. After the explosive opening to the movement, the strings sound a little thin to my ears, lacking the clarity and sonorousness in the bottom register that has characterised all this series, and that I would expect from a large orchestra.
The chorus has no such problem, integrating well with the orchestra and soloists. The renowned baritone, Mathias Goerne, is in fine voice, sounding quite happy in a controlled way rather than openly joyous, but maintaining the clarity that has distinguished all these recordings. As a whole the vocal contribution from soloists and chorus is excellent.

On the whole, the recording quality maintains the very high standard of the series, clear and analytical yet warm with ambience, realistic in frequency and dynamic range. I note that in all the symphonies the timpani are quite prominent (possibly because a chamber orchestra provides less competition), but they are recorded beautifully, and the orchestra as a whole is ideally balanced.
Once again, the final movement of the ninth poses the most problems, and they are almost all overcome to my satisfaction. In the second section, the scherzo "in the Turkish style", I visualise a marching band, with "fifes and drums". In some recordings of this work (e.g. Rattle/VSO, Mackerras/RLPO) the piccolo and bass drum are clearly heard, but in this one I am not wholly convinced. Perversely, in loud tuttis towards the end of the movement they are audible. I must emphasise that this is my personal expectation of how it ought to sound off CD, and may not accord with a live audience experience, and this recording may be more truthful.

So I may feel a little guilty for denying this SACD my final star, unlike the other four. Paavo Jarvi's Beethoven has given me great pleasure, and I ought not to be ungrateful.

I have already, with great enthusiasm, reviewed the 6 & 2 symphony of Beethoven with this ensemble, and therefor had to check all nine symphonies in this series of Paavo Järvi and The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie - and yes I'm still very enthusiastic, but do though have a few drawbacks concerning the ninth. But first the good stuff - these performances, with a chamber orchestra (kammer is German for chamber), does throughout posses a freshness about them, which isn't always the case with a repertoire that, because of its timeless quality, have been played to death, so it quite often sounds like a routine-matter, which is very unfortunate for such great music - but this is certainly not the case here.

What is amazing with this series of recordings, is that they posses a clarity, not just in the recording, which is superb and very natural sounding - no, I'm talking about the balance within the orchestra - here you can hear everything, and we're not talking about an analytic sound - on the contrary. My guess is that when Beethoven originally made his orchestrations the orchestras in his time had a different sound - the strings for instance, wasn't playing as loud as their nowadays modern family and therefor you could much better hear the woodwinds, which is wonderful in the case of Beethoven, because they certainly just wasn't fillers, they were - as you'll hear if you get some of these recordings, very important to his orchestration - and you'll probably discover a lot of things you've never heard before. One would think that with a chamber orchestra you wouldn't get a full enough sound, but that is not the case here, it do really have a full and big sound - although I'm agreeing with the reviewer above, that it is only in the beginning of the last movement of this symphony, that you miss some weight, because of the less number of double-basses.

But now to the few drawbacks for me, and this is of course naturally a matter of personal taste, but firstly I believe that some of the tempos are slightly too fast - and I really mean slightly, because just a bit slower would have made a big difference. In the beginning of the 1st movement for instance the tempo is too fast, later in the movement the tempo is, funny enough, slowed down a little and here is feels better. I could also have wished that there have been a little more sensitivity in the 'play' with phrases tempo wise, a little more time and I do believe that is gets a bit too "metronomical" at times. Also in the last movement towards the end, the march sounds a little too fast for my taste. Secondly the timpani often sounds a too loud and doesn't balance with the rest of the orchestra - so far that I can hear it is not because of the recording, it is just played too loud, because there is many spots where i balances perfectly.

But beside this everything here is absolutely great - a recording that is very welcome - which brings life and justice to this great music and I can definitely recommend it, maybe not as the only version (I still treasure my old Karajan) but as a very authentic and vital performance that reveals new things in the music.

This is a superb performance of Beethoven's masterpiece, alive from first note to last, the orchestra beautifully balanced and alert. Inspiring!