Is that possible? Or is this a result of repeats taken or not taken? ****
Sure it’s possible. Much controversy around what the “correct” tempos for Beethoven’s works should be. In recent times his symphonies have seldom been performed using Beethoven’s metronome markings in the score which would result in much faster performances. They are usually performed much slower than marked and Bohm’s recordings of the 9th are known for being some of the slowest. I have Bohm’s recording with Vienna, but I don’t know the Gardiner. It’s possible that Gardiner made an effort to, as some “purists” insist on doing, stick to Beethoven’s markings. This would result in a performance under one hour in duration vs many others which are in the 70+ min range.
An interesting factoid that you may not be aware of: the possible total length of a CD was determined by Sony execs to be 74 mins in order for a single cd to accommodate the 9th in its entirety. At the time, the slowest known recorded performance was with Furtwangler conducting which clocks in at.......74 mins.