Description

Wihelm Furtwängler and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Choir, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano, Elsa Cavelti, contralto Ernst Häfliger, tenor, Otto Edelmann, baritone. Lucerne, 22 August 1954 (Furtwängler’s last performance of this work). ADD. Total Time = 75:20. New digital restoration (2007) by Aaron Z. Snyder, using the revolutionary “harmonic balancing” technique. UPC# 0-17685-07902-3.

Sound Clips (MP3):

1. Beethoven- Symphony No. 9- I. Allegro non troppo-un poco maestoso

2. Beethoven- Symphony No. 9- II. Molto vivace-presto- molto vivace

3. Beethoven- Symphony No. 9- III. Adagio molto cantabile-andante moderato

16. Beethoven- Symphony No. 9- IV. Allegro assai vivace-Alla Marcia

19. Beethoven- Symphony No. 9- IV. Allegro energico

21. Beethoven- Symphony No. 9- IV. Poco Allegro, stringendo il tempo, sempre piu Allegro-Prestissimo-Maestoso-Prestissimo

Our previous CD release of this performance in 1995 earned critical superlatives like these: “A very broad, deeply felt, poetic reading” (Henry Fogel in Fanfare); and “A palpable culmination of an already dying tradition… a Choral that Richard Wagner surely would have cherished” (Robert Cowan in BBC Music Magazine).

“The excellent sound (digitally restored, 2007) is almost tympani-heavy, with its rolling figuration emphasized as part of one of Furtwängler’s most methodical, deliberate evolutions, especially in the first movement. Wonderful stuff!”

-Gary Lemco, Audiophile Audition