Schubert with style but without smiling

What an Austrian, Karl Böhm Schubert offers a vision that was often described as "German": romantic but severe and very structured thought.
The orchestra of Berlin is a rather dark color, articulation is very clear but the interpretation, dramatic and tense, is quite similar between the first and last symphonies.

The whole is however excellent, provided to enjoy this imposing and austere style. Certainly Abbaddo Kertesz and each offered a brighter Schubert and "nice" in the early symphonies. But Böhm signs here one of the best Symphony No. 9 (much better than those of Karajan in Berlin) and reveals like no other anxiety and magnitude of these works. The slow movements are of great beauty but minuets, very steep, have aged poorly.

Maybe not a "reference", but without doubt one of the best all-wheel Schubert symphonies, the most consistent, anyway.