Rounding off Vänskä’s survey of Beethoven’s great symphonies which I stumbled over while preparing my "100 Greatest Classical Music Works" thread . This time I have chosen to listen through in numerical order and not the order Vänskä recorded them, and maybe that was a mistake. While this is a very nice performance it is hardly the high point of the set and the recording quality is alas not up to the level of most of the other works. On reflection, maybe not the best pick for the “100 Greatest”. It feels like Vänskä (and BIS) raised the bar as the cycle progressed, which leaves me looking forward to his, as yet unrecorded, 8th.
Osmo Vänskä • Minnesota Orchestra “Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, ‘Choral’” 2000, Qobuz 24/44.1