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You were right! Pretty ghastly!
Those girlie-man dynamic taperings he keeps imposing (especially in the first movement) add an air of unwelcome effeminacy to the music - Beethoven is no longer shaking his fist at the gods, rather, he's gotten into finger painting! ;-)
And the tempos are just faster enough than usual that you sense the discomfort of the players in maintaining them. Every so often, they'll lapse back into a very slightly slower tempo, only to be gear-shifted back to the faster tempo with the start of a new phrase - to me, the Pittsburgh players don't sound convinced by Honeck's tempos at all.
And Honeck's emphasis and accents on the larger, pounding beats in the last movement loses the detail of the rhythmic subdivisions to be heard in just about any other performance of this work I know of. Occasionally, unnatural details get nervously pushed to the fore, and some sections are so fast and bound to the large beats that they sound not like Beethoven's Ninth, but like the Nazi Blitzkrieg into France. Ugh!
I heard this recording via stereo 24/192 streaming on Qobuz, and it sounded to me like Soundmirror had really lost the focus, with the strings often overwhelmed by the rest of the orchestra, and the tympani thwacked out with hard sticks (which I don't necessarily mind) but with enough of an undamped ringing to interfere with the subsequent notes in other instruments every now and then. In short, NOT a good sound. Maybe it sounds better in its original MCh DSD256 guise.
Honeck has definitely gone off on the deep end with this recording - I didn't read his booklet notes however. Maybe he's got elaborate justifications for all this crap. When you hear something as bad as this Beethoven Ninth, it can make you go back and reconsider your previous, favorable estimations of the conductor's work.
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Topic - Hey, Zarlino - I finally heard Honeck's Beethoven Ninth - Chris from Lafayette 17:55:23 05/03/21 (37)
- I've put this recording to a (perhaps better) use.... - Russell 09:43:18 05/05/21 (2)
- Good job (making a silk purse out of a sow's ear!) [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 10:53:27 05/05/21 (1)
- +1... [nt] - Todd Krieger 23:48:50 05/05/21 (0)
- As if this Ninth weren't bad enough, here's Honeck's Pastoral - Chris from Lafayette 00:49:43 05/05/21 (6)
- RE: As if this Ninth weren't bad enough, here's Honeck's Pastoral - classfolkphile 12:46:46 05/08/21 (1)
- Riverdance! [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 01:10:46 05/09/21 (0)
- RE: As if this Ninth weren't bad enough, here's Honeck's Pastoral - Todd Krieger 01:04:08 05/05/21 (3)
- A couple of posters on SymphonyShare are calling Honeck's Pastoral "Riverdance"! - Chris from Lafayette 15:53:32 05/06/21 (0)
- RE: As if this Ninth weren't bad enough, here's Honeck's Pastoral - pbarach 05:24:35 05/05/21 (1)
- pbarach - I didn't know you were on SymphonyShare too - Chris from Lafayette 10:51:34 05/05/21 (0)
- I Just Listened To It....... - Todd Krieger 00:22:41 05/05/21 (4)
- That's fair - I'd say the lack of cohesion is one of the main characteristics of this performance [nt] - Chris from Lafayette 00:40:27 05/05/21 (3)
- I Have a Feeling....... - Todd Krieger 00:48:19 05/05/21 (2)
- Recorded in 2019. nt - oldmkvi 11:20:17 05/05/21 (1)
- RE: Recorded in 2019. nt - Todd Krieger 23:45:01 05/05/21 (0)
- I Had a Somewhat Different Reaction - Mel 13:09:30 05/04/21 (3)
- At least we agree about SoundMirror's less than stellar contribution to the proceedings - Chris from Lafayette 16:44:22 05/04/21 (0)
- Darn! Now I'm going to have to listen to it as well.... - Ivan303 13:26:21 05/04/21 (1)
- That was our plan all along! [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 16:45:06 05/04/21 (0)
- Great line! - srl1 10:39:46 05/04/21 (1)
- Dave and I both studied at the same institution of higher learning. . . - Chris from Lafayette 16:24:42 05/04/21 (0)
- "Those girlie-man dynamic taperings" Seriously? - oldmkvi 08:19:42 05/04/21 (3)
- I'm sorry! I meant. . . - Chris from Lafayette 17:36:33 05/05/21 (0)
- "Male insecurity on aisle 7!" - tinear 10:47:57 05/04/21 (0)
- I'd say more sexist than homophobic.... - Ivan303 09:48:17 05/04/21 (0)
- RE: Hey, Zarlino - I finally heard Honeck's Beethoven Ninth - Todd Krieger 19:46:59 05/03/21 (0)
- that's too bad - DrChaos 19:34:24 05/03/21 (10)
- LOL. Yeah, after negative reviews here from a few guys his career is shot. Funny forum :-) nt - Rick W 08:41:17 05/04/21 (6)
- What the hell does Coltrane think he's doing? - oldmkvi 11:16:07 05/05/21 (5)
- Only a tasteless fool would enjoy recordings that don't receive the Classical Court seal of approval. nt - Rick W 11:35:33 05/05/21 (4)
- Sure! Because everything is just as good as everything else! ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 13:17:26 05/05/21 (3)
- Arbiters emeriti. nt - Rick W 14:03:26 05/05/21 (2)
- I like it - especially since I write purely for love of the art! [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 14:48:22 05/05/21 (1)
- thx :-) nt - Rick W 15:33:51 05/05/21 (0)
- I'm sure the BPO shares everyone's assessment of Honeck. - oldmkvi 06:36:39 05/04/21 (1)
- Point taken, but still... - Ivan303 13:24:29 05/04/21 (0)
- RE: that's too bad - Todd Krieger 19:50:11 05/03/21 (0)