The Egmont Overture which opens the above, incredible recording. I didn't really 'get' Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 until I heard this album, and it remains my favourite performance of the work. Fricsay and the Berlin Philharmonic play it straight - presenting the work in all its staggering glory - not their own, with no obvious mannerisms (David Hurwitz of Classics Today puts it better than I ever could). The secure, propulsive rhythm of the Egmont and the opening movement of the symphony mean you more or less know what's coming later on, but that doesn't make the climax of the first movement or the first minute of the last any less brilliant. Here's the overture:
"How Do I Let A Good Man Down?" by Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings, from Naturally. Like the rest of the album, gloriously faithful to the classic soul and funk sounds of decades past, yet toe-tappingly great in its own right.
