Beethoven Ninth Symphony

I agree that Furtwangler's performances cannot be beat. The recordings from during the war on Music and Arts and the Tahra recordings are not the best. The EMI from 53 isn't too bad. As to other recordings, Gunter Wand's sounds decent as does Harnoncourt's but I don't know that these are avaiable except in box sets. Bohm's is also not bad. Vanska's probably has the cleanest sound.

i prefer Toscanini's sym.9 over Furtwangler's, but both are sonically not that great.

the Vanska Beethoven sym recordings are all very good. definitely worth getting.

I just got the same set Photon46 mentions and can confirm that it is a very nice set. You might want to pick it up before it disappears at that price (for SACDs from Phillips). I used to live in The Hague and listen to that orchestra...they have a nice, warm sound. I haven't gotten to the 9th yet...but I'll pass on a story: I studied counterpoint years ago in college from a guy who had played clarinet under Toscanini in the NBC Orchestra. Great guy...used to sit on his desk, chain smoke Pall Malls and tell stories of the good ol' days, in between pounding on us about the mathematics of counterpoint. One day he said, mischievously, "You know, some of us say that Beethoven struck out in the 9th." We were all a bit taken aback. One just didn't say that sort of thing. Yet, thirty years later, I have to admit, I rarely listen to the 9th. If I'm in the mood for Beethoven symphonies, I'd rather hear 1,2,4,6, or 8.

But when I do listen to the 9th, my preference is for Toscanini. And some of the old RCA mono Lp's (Shaded Dogs) sound pretty darn good. (And some of them don't...)

For me The 9th Karajan"s interpretation with Vienna symphony is the Ultimate.It has to be heard on DG SACD pressings though,the Cd edition is just too muffled.

Of course it is still not the same as the original vinyl pressings.....

I'm more partial to some of the older ones myself, but if you want an excellent performance on CD of an original instrument group, you cannot do better than John Eliot Gardiner's set.