This Guild release may be the historical reissue of 2009. Featuring what could be the greatest performance of Beethoven's Ninth ever recorded in what is certainly the best sound it's ever had, plus five rarities and a rehearsal, it would take one heck of a reissue to beat it. For some listeners, calling Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Berliner Philharmoniker's March 24, 1942, performance of the Ninth the greatest ever might be heresy. It was recorded in Berlin during the war with the Nazi high command in attendance, and for ...
Read More
This Guild release may be the historical reissue of 2009. Featuring what could be the greatest performance of Beethoven's Ninth ever recorded in what is certainly the best sound it's ever had, plus five rarities and a rehearsal, it would take one heck of a reissue to beat it. For some listeners, calling Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Berliner Philharmoniker's March 24, 1942, performance of the Ninth the greatest ever might be heresy. It was recorded in Berlin during the war with the Nazi high command in attendance, and for some listeners that fact will taint the performance beyond redemption. But Furtwängler and the Berlin musicians, in a performance of bracing intensity, deliver what can easily be seen as a repudiation of Nazi ideology with a performance of unrestrained emotion and intensity. It might not be as overtly joyful as some tastes would want, and the Finale's setting of Schiller's Ode to Joy comes close to ecstatic parody at times, but here the Ninth emerges as a work of almost frightening...
Read Less
