Harold C. Schonberg described the Szell approach as ''anti-romantic... literalist... precisionist'' (The Great Conductors; New York: 1967). Szell's relentless striving after precision can be felt most strongly in the quality of the ensemble: the Cleveland Orchestra sound as alert and tautly harmonious as a first-rate chamber group. And as for literalism—I'm tempted to say that no Szell recording would be complete without at least one striking indictment of tradition. Here he has noted the frequently ignored staccato markings in bars 121–2 and 131–2 of the Adagio, and punches them out with triumphant glee. But then that kind of sharp-edged emphasis is typical of the Szell approach, it adds enormous energy to the dotted rhythms of the first movement—though I find the regular sforzando jabs in the finale's fugal Allegro energico variation unduly aggressive. All the same, to call Szell ''anti-romantic'' is only acceptable so long as it isn't intended to imply inexpressiveness. The Adagio is no less beautiful for being finely etched—the minutely attentive phrasing in the B flat major Lo stesso tempo variation is really very telling.
If not quite at the opposite extreme from Szell, Paul Kletzki's version still stands firmly on the romantic side: one notes the long legato lines and generous rubato in the last two movements—the latter apparent in the finale's cello and btss redtatives, in defiance of Beethoven's mais in tempo—and also the once-familiar 'improvements' to Beethoven's scoring: added violin and bass octaves, reinforced wind, and so on. There's even an occasional whiff of Grand Guignol, strongest in the melodramatic repeated crescendos at the first movement's central climax. For all this, there's a real sense of discovery about this performance and of communal participation in Beethoven's vision—indeed there's so much fire and feeling that after a long day's listening I found much of it quite irresistible. Not all of it though; after Szell's attentiveness to the letter, Kletzki's persistence in the sin of adulteration seems all the more regrettable.
Somewhere between these opposed points fall Schmidt-Isserstedt and Suitner. When it comes to the letter of the score, Suitner is quite as scrupulous as Szell—in fact he's the only one of the four to make all the repeats in the Scherzo (Schmidt-Isserstedt doesn't observe any!). As for the spirit Suitner's version doesn't match Szell or Kletzki in intensity: there's buoyant energy in the Scherzo warmth in the outer sections of the Adagio and a sense of mounting excitement in the finale. Unfortunately the energy of the Scherzo isn't as apparent in the first movement, and the woodwind and horns' 'developing variation' in the Adagio lacks tension. Schmidt-Isserstedt's reading is more consistent, and he has the finest solo quartet in the finale (a great disappointment in the Szell version), but in comparison with the others, Szell and Suitner in particular, I find him a little dogged—certainly not exciting or revealing enough to make the textual adulterations forgivable. And when we come to the matter of sound-quality I'm afraid Schmidt-Isserstedt's has to go straight to bottom place. Tape hiss is penetrating and the orchestra and choir sound dull. There's plenty of hiss on the Szell disc too, but it's less incisive and the ear adjusts more easily—all in all the sound here is brighter and more appealing. Suitner's is the most recent recording, and it's fully digital. I still find it dull and slightly over-reverberant though, and unless I'm very much mistaken, there's been a spot of artificial level-boosting in bar 6 of the Scherzo. You have to be very careful indeed to get away with that sort of thing on CD. No, the sound I found most pleasant was that of Kletzki: it's a clear, well-balanced recording, and the transfer works very well.
A final recommendation? I don't think any of these discs is going to take over from Masur/Philips as my basic stereo Beethoven Ninth, but I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to experience the Szell again, and to become acquainted with that arresting Kletzki—both well worth a hearing at the very least.'