PsB
Citizen of Nowhere™
Just listened to HvK's 1962 9th on DG vinyl. (The recording sounds fine, very ample sound except for an unfortunate tendency the recording engineer has in the 4th movement to throttle back on the fff passages: the orchestra and choir at full blast sound no louder than other passages with only half the crew.)
The performance is fine and energetic, and the soloists at the end are excellent. But the 9th is still not my favourite LvB symphony: too long, too ponderous, too stodgy for my uneducated taste. The 3d movement in particular seems to run out of steam somewhere around the middle and takes for ever. Ms Janowitz in the 4th movement makes it worth plodding through, but I won't be listening to this monument of Western civilisation again for a while.
(I've got me coat on already and will let meself out)
The performance is fine and energetic, and the soloists at the end are excellent. But the 9th is still not my favourite LvB symphony: too long, too ponderous, too stodgy for my uneducated taste. The 3d movement in particular seems to run out of steam somewhere around the middle and takes for ever. Ms Janowitz in the 4th movement makes it worth plodding through, but I won't be listening to this monument of Western civilisation again for a while.
(I've got me coat on already and will let meself out)