Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony, with its cosmic vision of a loving creator “beyond the stars,” was first heard in Berlin in 1826, just two years after its Vienna premiere. The city’s concertgoers took the work to heart then, as did the founding members of the Berlin Philharmonic 60 or so years later. It soon became essential to the orchestra’s lifeblood, a gold-standard measure of its artistry, the insights of its principal conductors, and their capacity to articulate the Symphony’s expression of humanity’s elevating quest for mutual friendship. Under Simon Rattle’s direction, the Berlin band delivers an interpretation marked above all by its vision of the score’s expressive shadings and emotional instabilities, sounding as if they are somehow plugged directly into the tremendous world of Beethoven’s imagination. Rattle’s limpet-like grasp on the Symphony’s structure and feeling for its complex web of surface details and tempo changes give shape to an interpretation that’s both coherent and volatile. Beethoven the revolutionary erupts with volcanic force in the first movement, and leaps over the barricades in the work’s choral finale. The latter’s irresistible energy is propelled by the orchestra’s hair-raising fanfares and rousing unveiling of the “Ode to Joy” theme, and raised to fever pitch by the superb Berlin Radio Choir. And Russian bass Dimitry Ivashchenko, outstanding among the characterful quartet of soloists, underlines the novel intrusion of voices into what until now has been a purely instrumental mix by jazzing up his opening recitative; and he revels in joy’s seductive, intoxicating beauty. When themes from the first three movements sound again in the last, Rattle presents them as participants in a ritual procession leading inexorably to Beethoven’s final, ecstatic proclamation of joy’s magic power to heal and unite. His interpretation’s momentum may be urgent but it’s never relentless; there’s always time to take stock, to allow the singing lines of the “Adagio” to bloom, for instance, or shape the second movement’s playful counterpoint. There are audacious moments, too, such as the choir’s spotlighting of “Brüder” (“brothers”) at the return of “Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?” (“Do you fall to your knees, you millions?”). Beyond matters of interpretation, this recording’s claims to greatness rest with the near-superhuman qualities of the Berlin orchestra’s playing. It soars beyond the stars thanks to the commitment of 100 or so soloists who play as one, listening and responding to each other with blazing intensity, uncanny accuracy, and a genuine empathy for Beethoven’s hymn to universal brotherhood. Listen to the bonus track for Simon Rattle’s compelling personal insight into conducting Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. “It’s as though you can suddenly see a bigger landscape,” he reveals. “It demands so much of you.”