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Title: Not Worth It
Review: With the amount of available recordings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony out there, I would avoid this one. While I have heard countless interpretations of this masterpiece, I have never heard such a rushed and impatient rendition of the slow movement. Although the outer movements are not bad, they lack the texture and tone color necessary for this work. The Andante, which many musicologists credit with kicking off the Romantic Era of composition, is played so fast that it is impossible to appreciate. The beauty of art music is that it is open to interpretation. And yes, none of us knows how Beethoven himself envisioned the tempo. What we do know however, is that with all the energy in the outer movements of the Ninth, the slow movement can afford to be played at a tempo that allows the listener to "smell the roses." Stick with the Bernstein, Masur or even Karajan for this work.
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