BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 9 (Sealed) (2LP)

Abbado’s new (Beethoven Symphony) cycle is certainly different, quicker, lighter-toned, more ‘Italianate’ - the Ninth Symphony radically so ... By concentrating on pace, logic and transparent texturing Abbado effectively draws Beethoven into that distinguished circle of musical obsessives whose music he has always conducted as to the manner born. At best, the new technology produces sound of astonishing transparency, I have never heard the finale of the Ninth Symphony so astutely and lucidly performed and recorded, the inner part-writing, vocal and choral, crystal-clear ... it is the studio-made Fourth and the ‘live’ Ninth which currently stand clear in my memory. - Gramophone