Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral"

Recordings worth hearing

• Furtwängler / Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

  Historical

  EMI / Warner · 1951

  The 1951 concert that reopened Bayreuth. Poor sound, tempo freedoms that would now be called excessive, and a finale nobody has since matched for momentum.

• Gardiner / Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique

  Period instruments

  Archiv · 1994

  Period instruments at Beethoven's own metronome marks. The scherzo moves so fast it sounds like a different piece, and the much smaller chorus makes the words audible.

Upcoming performances