Best Beethoven's 9th recording?

Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Decca
One of the great Beethoven 9ths.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000428Q/qid=1085365145/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-9941353-4786221

For the 5th, no performance exceeds the marvelous recording by Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammophon.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000001GPX/qid=1085365032/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9941353-4786221?v=glance&s=classical
.

All of these sound quite good, but the first three are recent recordings. All excellent performances.

Barenboim, Teldec
Wand, RCA
Norrington, Hanssler
Bohm, DG Eloquence
Fricsay, DG
Bernstein, DG

Many excellent suggestions above (especially Solti). Also:

1963 Karajan on DG (sounds very good on vinyl, still one of the greats).

For modern recordings, Mackerras, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Classics for Pleasure. Great recording, excellent sound.

David

Furtwangler, 1943 or 1944 recording, music and arts. mono and dynamics are not great,but oh the music! Try Barenboim's movie soundtrack of "Taking Sides", a movie about the de-nazification of Furtwangler, he uses Furtwangler's score and markings with exact phrasing and tempos that Furtwangler used, the timing is within 5 seconds of Furtwangler's. Absolutely stunning recording! Highly recommended!

Thanks, all. I just ordered the Solti. Looking forward to it!

Will keep the other suggestions for the future as well.

NAS

Oops! Barenboim's(Furtwangler) is the 5th not the 9th.

If you like a faster paced ninth, like Toscanini, but you want better sound quality than any of Toscanini's recordings, I would recommend Rene Leibowitz version (available from Chesky).

Beethoven 9th Reiner played the other day by PBS (KUSC) in LA. Great 2nd movement, almost great 3rd movement, and interesting and good last. I missed the first movement. I remember this record when I was a teenager getting started in music and high end. Wow, what an orchestra and chorus. Not to say anything about Professor Reiner.

As to the Fifth, I grew up on Szell Cleveland (incredible playing with dry but acceptable sound) and Szell Amsterdam on Philips with Sibelius 2. The newer Telarcs with Dohnanyi are good solid performances but sound is opaque to my ears, even with my newer equipment. But I grew up on the Cleveland trumpet and horn sound, and I can't live without it. I agree that a good performance is 1963 Karajan BPO and the Solti 9th is in my late Dad's LP collection.

I don't know about more modern ones when I have heard and studied over 20 versions of each and live with those I like; few of these old ones can be bettered performance wise and often the remastered (London FFRR/RCA Red Seal/DGG with Gunter Hermanns/Philips/etc.) sound is surprisingly good.

from an old pro--happy listening