Jazz for aficionados

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.

I knew about the Sony CD thing.  Seems as if Gardiner could conduct the 9th, and the 1812 overture, and still finish before Bohm finished his 9th.

You should check out the Gardiner.  The one I have is  from a set of all Beethoven's Symphonies on the Archiv label.   Released in 1994.   Was all the rage in Europe at the time.   Recording of the year etc...

Thanks for the info.

Cheers