Beethoven Symphony No 9 Claudio Abbado Berliner Philharmoniker (2007)

With the Fifth Symphony the Symphony No 9 is the most famous piece Its unusual length the adjunction of soloists and of choruses the choice of the Ode to Joy by Schiller all of this concurs to its fame The Ninth Symphony is a Big Bang in symphonic terms A grandiose apotheosis sublimating all of Beethovens work by being the most universal and immediately understood piece ever written