Beethoven: Symphony No. 9.(Sound Recording Review)

Mary Dunleavy, soprano; Elizabeth Bishop, mezzo-soprano; Stephen Gould, tenor; Alastair Miles, bass. Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Telarc CD-80603.

Despite using the new Urtext Edition edited by Jonathan Del Mar and published by Barenreiter, this new recording of the Ninth Symphony from conductor Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus steers a pretty safe course through the interpretive mainstream. The new edition corrects hundreds of errors perpetuated over the years, but you'd hardly notice it under Runnicles's baton. The coupling of moderate tempos and reserved sonics produces a fairly straightforward account of Beethoven's climatic work.

Although both Runnicles and David Zinman on his Arte Nova recording use the same text, don't expect anything like the same results. Zinman employs a slightly reduced orchestral force, adopts much faster speeds (approaching period-instruments practice), and is given a lighter, brighter audio environment to generate a much more electrifying result. Runnicles, on the other hand, is consistently slower than Zinman, although not nearly so slow as many older conductors, and effects a more tempered performance. Runnicles should appeal to those listeners seeking a modern digital recording of a big orchestra playing a conservative Ninth in a newly revised edition.

I had my doubts about Runnicles in the beginning, though. The opening of the first movement seemed positively glacial, and when the orchestral sound comes to the fore, it appears to be more a matter of the engineer's hand than the conductor's. But once he gets started, Runnicles moves the Allegro along splendidly. Beethoven's oddly placed second-movement Scherzo is also taken at a sprightly pace, though nothing like Zinman's or Norrington's. It's in the slow movement, the Adagio, that Runnicles is especially careful. He avoids ...