The new Naxos Ninth has a number of virtues. The orchestral playing under Bela Drahos is stylish and quick on its feet, the choral work is fiery and strong, the soloists are more than competent (the soprano takes her final top B very nicely), and the recording is good. Perhaps one could go further and assert that Drahos encounters few problems with the Scherzo, the slow movement (quickish in the modern style) or even the finale. He does not ‘do’ a great deal with the music here, but that is not necessarily a failing. Where the performance fails to impress is in the first movement. This is a reading that stays in the shallows of Beethoven’s mighty sea, the music chuntering along with too little regard for the dramas that are being played out above, below, in and around the notes.'