Beethoven – Symphony No.9
Erin Wall; Kendall Gladen; William Burden; Nathan Berg; San Francisco Symphony; Michael Tilson Thomas
SFS Media 821936-0055-2
Beethoven symphonies hold a special place in my heart, having been my point of entry into the world of classical music, starting with the Sixth Symphony at the tender age of seven or eight. The very sweep of the master’s compositions sent shivers down my spine. But it was the Ninth that truly shocked and disturbed me, providing enough nervous tension and pent-up force-under-the-surface to forever etch itself onto my mind. Later on, in high school, during my mercifully short career as a chorister, I remember the difficulty of singing the last movement at breakneck speed, as the music hurled towards a climax. Granted, the Ninthdoes not sound much like the rest of Beethoven’s symphonies, but who knew that Louis Spohr described the first three movements as “inferior to all eight previous symphonies” and the Fourth as “so monstrous and tasteless ... that I cannot understand how a genius like Beethoven could have written it.” As I always say, consider the source: Louis who?
All joking aside, there was enough experimentation in the Ninth to disturb Beethoven’s contemporaries. Nowadays, what makes it great still is that raw, exposed nerve; the passion and relentless thrust forward that still break convention. In keeping with its nature, the Ninth is best experienced as a live performance or recording thereof, here with Michael Tilson Thomas steering the orchestra with a steady hand and with passion to spare. When the murmur of the “Ode to Joy” theme grows into a vocal and choral crescendo, the old shivers down my spine are back again.
