This Beethoven Ninth, the second such offering from Philippe Herreweghe, marks the completion of his cycle with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. After the recent Krivine recording on Naïve (type Q12876 in Search Reviews) I was bracing myself for another travail of undernourished, asthmatic-sounding strings, but was pleasantly surprised by the full-bodied if smallish sound produced by the Royal Flemish string section. Herreweghe’s quick tempos and crisp phrasing do emphasize musical values over rhetorical ones, but it’s the rhetoric that makes this piece so much fun. The hard-stick timpani should create a moment of terror in the first-movement climax, but Herreweghe reins in the dynamics (here and in the scherzo), making this passage sound more like Bizet’s L’Arlésienne than Beethoven’s Ninth symphony.
One benefit of period style is that it frees the Adagio from its traditional slow pacing (which reached its extreme in Solti’s nearly 20-minute rendition). Herreweghe’s light, fleet conducting keeps the music flowing, even though he’s disappointingly stiff in the dramatic closing section. Stiffness affects the Finale as well. The introduction produces no sense of danger, while the clockwork recitatives inhibit their dramatic effect.
As for the actual singing, David Wilson-Johnson’s wooly bass voice commands attention even if his delivery does not inspire; equally uninspiring are the strained high notes of tenor Christoph Strehl. The female soloists acquit themselves nicely, as does the chorus (quite excellent), which tends to overpower the orchestra in tutti passages.
Herreweghe drives the symphony to a rather fast close, generating significant energy, but without the sense of euphoria you hear in the great performances. PentaTone’s recording sounds spacious and vibrant in stereo SACD, although it does set the orchestra at a distance, requiring a boost in playback volume (but then, watch out for that chorus!). As far as period Ninth’s go, Gardiner’s and Norrington’s (Hänssler) are better choices. For traditional versions go for Bernstein, Wand, Barenboim, and Szell.
