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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Classical / Classical era · 1951

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Wilhelm Furtwängler / Bayreuth Festival

베토벤: 교향곡 9번 · 빌헬름 푸르트벵글러 / 바이로이트

Why listen

Four large movements, rather than the famous choral tune alone, reveal the scale of this Bayreuth performance’s commercial recording.

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Tracks · previews

English editorial edition

Album story

The third movement lasts longer than the first in this edition of Furtwängler’s Bayreuth Ninth. That proportion is a useful starting point: the slow movement is a substantial destination, not merely a waiting room for the choir. Hear the change from the second movement’s scherzo to the Adagio before approaching the finale. The eventual addition of voices then changes the ensemble itself.

The performance marked the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival on 29 July 1951. Its archive names Furtwängler and the four soloists: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth Höngen, Hans Hopf and Otto Edelmann. Here the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Choir appear in the EMI commercial lineage, delivered with 1997 remaster rights. All four movements occupy four tracks, totaling about seventy-four minutes of music.

A slow movement placed third

Beethoven puts the scherzo before the Adagio. Compare their different ways of organizing time: recurring rhythmic figures give way to sustained melody and variation. The timings help locate the large proportions without reducing an interpretation to a speed ranking. Follow the returns of a melody in the slow movement and consider how elaboration changes its apparent weight.

The orchestra prepares the entrance

The finale does not begin with the chorus. Orchestral recollections and the low strings’ speech-like responses precede the familiar theme and the arrival of the singers. Separate the moment when you recognize the tune from the moment a human voice enters. The shift from instrumental statement to solo and collective singing offers more to follow than a simple increase in loudness.

Identify the recording lineage

A concert date and a particular transfer are different kinds of information. BIS separately issued a Swedish Radio source with announcements and applause. This four-track commercial edition should not be described as that complete broadcast. Nor does identifying the difference establish every edit or take in the commercial source. Keep that limitation visible, then return to the transition from the Adagio’s conclusion into the finale’s opening.

The album through its tracks

Compare the transitions from scherzo to Adagio and from Adagio to finale, following changes in rhythm, melody and performing forces.

  1. III. Adagio molto e cantabile

    At approximately 19:32, the third movement occupies a considerable share of this performance. Listen for a melody returning with altered decoration rather than treating the Adagio as an extended pause after the scherzo. Its length becomes meaningful in relation to the movements around it, not as evidence that slower automatically means deeper. This is also the last movement sustained entirely by the orchestra. Continue directly into the finale to hear how its conclusion changes the effect of the next opening. The linked track contains this movement in full from the specified Bayreuth commercial edition; it is not a similarly titled movement drawn from another year or orchestra.

    Reference · Qobuz / Warner Classics — 1955/1997 commercial edition, four movements and credits

  2. IV. Presto

    The complete finale occupies one track of approximately 24:59. Before looking for the choir, follow the low strings’ responses and the theme taking shape within the orchestra. Edelmann’s solo entrance introduces a different kind of event from an orchestral crescendo. Distinguishing solo singing from the choir’s contributions helps organize the long movement after the recognizable tune arrives. The edition credits Schwarzkopf, Höngen, Hopf and Edelmann with the Bayreuth forces. Other transfers may divide this movement into several tracks, but that does not create additional movements in the composition. Begin with the preceding Adagio if possible, so that the finale’s opening answers a musical ending rather than silence.

    Reference · Qobuz / Warner Classics — 1955/1997 commercial edition, four movements and credits

Listen next

Continue to Furtwängler’s 1952 Vienna Philharmonic Eroica and compare how another four-movement symphony builds its conclusion without adding singers.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 Eroica ↗
References & editorial note

Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.