This disc has been nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the "Best Orchestral Performance" category.
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Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
BIS SACD 1616
Release: 2006

Repertoire:
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Choral

Minnesota Orchestra
Minnesota Chorale, prepared by Artistic Director Kathy Saltzman Romey
Helena Juntunen, soprano
Katarina Karnéus, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Norman, tenor
Neal Davies, bass-baritone

The third disc in Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Beethoven symphonies cycle features one of the greatest of all symphonies: Beethoven’s Ninth. Recorded by BIS using DSD (direct stream digital) technology, the new album is part of a five-year, five-disc plan designed to record the complete Beethoven symphonies.

Recorded at Minneapolis’ Orchestra Hall in January 2006, this performance of Beethoven’s Ninth also features a superlative quartet of singers: soprano Helena Juntunen, mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus, tenor Daniel Norman, bass-baritone Neal Davies and the Minnesota Chorale, the Orchestra’s principal chorus. The recording sessions followed a series of live subscription performances at Orchestra Hall that were called “volcanic” (Star Tribune) and “perhaps the most exciting take on the symphony local audiences may ever have the fortune to experience” (Pioneer Press).

As with the first two albums, the third disc was recorded as a Super Audio CD (SACD) by producer Robert Suff and the BIS team. SACDs use surround sound recording technology in order to reproduce the natural sound of the concert hall as faithfully as possible. BIS hybrid SACDs are playable on all standard CD players in stereo.