Oscar Fried's Ninth is unquestionably the crown jewel of Polydor's generally mediocre Beethoven Symphony cycle issued in the late 1920s and early '30s. Recorded in 1929, the sonics are no great shakes for their time, compared, for instance, to Felix Weingartner's pioneering 1926 version. But the dim sound doesn't obscure the Berlin State Opera Orchestra's fervent response to Fried's disciplined leadership. In fact, the performance is as straightforward, direct, unmannered, and unmemorable as today's standard-issue Ninths. The soloists in the Finale sing well, but pale against Weingartner's glorious quartet in his 1935 Vienna Philharmonic remake. We also miss the sustained intensity of Toscanini's 1938 and 1939 NBC broadcast versions, or the bittersweet string tone in Jochum's unsung pre-war Hamburg recording. David Lennick's transfer filters out surface noise to the point where note attacks lose definition and the top end of the dynamic spectrum vanishes. By contrast, Mark Obert-Thorn's transfer for Pearl is noisier, yet it reveals a wider degree of articulations and dynamics, and overall benefits from much cleaner source material than Lennick was able to muster. If you want this performance, Pearl's superior transfer is worth the extra expense.

--Jed Distler