Review of Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 op. 125 "Choral" DVD AUDIO VERSION

Introduction

This DVD Audio disc is the first DVD-Audio release which meets all requirements of the DVD Consortium and the DVD Forum with respect to the LPCM authoring process. THis means, amongst other things that is it DVD Audio only so it won`t play on most DVD players....

Boasting 6 channels, this disc is recorded at 48KHz (16 bit) with no compression whatsoever. So it should sound good......

Audio

WooHoo it does sound good, the extra channels add great depth to the piece, rather than surrounding you as one might expect. They convey an excellent feeling of life and movement and bring you as close to a live performance as you will get anywhere. Sirings come across very well, being the most dificult to reproduce digitally.

However the actual rendition of the piece may not be to most people`s liking, the symphony is extremely slow, the second movement especially so and it starts to drag after a while. Not as good a performance as the Concertgebouw Orkest for example.

Conclusion

DVD Audio is awesome and this is the best showcase for that format. The quality of the transfer is flawless.

If you like this performance of the ninth, then you`ll not hear a better disc or recording anywhere.