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Title: Everybody deserves at least one try
Review: Every big-name conductor gets a try at the Beethoven Ninth, and some, like Charles Munch, Solti, and Andre Previn on this CD, come up very, very short. Previn is bland to the point of incredulity in the first movement, whose slackness couldn't be greater. The same holds true for the sublime Adagio, which here comes off as a limp series of phrases with no conneciton. The Scherzo proceeds proficienlty enough, and the vocal quartet, recruited from the Met despite the London locale of the recording, are fine. but the conducting remains sluggish to the end. The sonics from 1988 are resonant but otherwise natural. Anyway, why bother with details when the conductor is at such a loss?
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