Beethoven - Symphony 9 [Sinopoli-Staatskapelle Dresden] I listened to this while walking through the park, and it was a lovely fresh day, and this disc in its reading is a breath of fresh air also, Sinopoli is very individual, i hear him doing different things than the usual, and yet there's logic to what he does, i think i need to seriously listen to what he has to say in other works also.
Giuseppe Sinopoli was born in 1946 in Italy, and died in 2001 of a heart attack, sustained while conducting Verdi's Aida, he made this live recording in 1997, the booklet front cover [photo by Ludwig Schirmer] shows Sinopoli standing outside the Staatsoperner Dresden, a nice pic.
The whole Symphony is a joy from beginning to end, each movement plays its part, for me, the first two movements were the highlights, usually i find the slow third movement the spiritual highlight, but on this listen i marvelled at the wonderful structure in the first half of the Symphony, and it was the second movement Molto Vivace that was the very best, like a gigantic swaggering juggernaut, this Scherzo lumbers along with a stammering gait, Sinopoli paces the whole thing expertly, early on there's these four loud timpani blasts [2:55-3:00] like out of nowhere, the forte passages are great [3:29+ & 4:04+], giving some nice vehemence, this is a movement that is more brass & drums, and certainly with this truncated lopsided gait to it all, but in the central section comes more of a strings & woodwind legato passage [5:04-7:31], a nice oasis in the staccato desert, as the opening returns, and the jumpy rhythms go again, the same four timpani blasts come round again [9:12-9:17], and the same two forte passages as well [9:45+ & 10:20+], a great creation from Beethoven, and re-creation from Sinopoli.
Here's Janos Ferencsik conducting the second movement on YouTube.
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