M’kay, here goes. . .
I want to find a good rendition of Mozart’s Ode to Joy, with the trumpets, horns, drums, etc. The only track I have on one of my CDs has a pithy string version. It kinda sucks. I want that jaw-shaking power, a la Die Hard.
I’ve got Classical Thunder I & II, but they don’t have it. Can ya point a fellah in the right direction?
Tripler
Classical music: I like music without words. 
Errrrr…are you referring to the final movement of **Beethoven’**s Ninth Symphony? 'Cause that’s the only “Ode to Joy” I know of.
PS: It has words, too. By Schiller.
I think he is talking about Beethoven, as that is the piece that is featured in my wifes favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard.
Thanks for the tip-off, JohnT. I’ll change the thread title so’s the lad has a chance of a decent answer.
My own copies of the Ninth are the Bruno Walter with the Columbia, Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin, and Frans Bruggen with the Orchestra of the 18th Century (on period instruments). All of which are nice, but not necessarily the type of barn-burners Trip’s looking for.
Though von Karajan is well-known for his interpretations of Beethoven (and they are very good), Furtwangler is considered to have directed a great Ninth. It’s on EMI, part of their “Great Recordings of the Century” series.
You wanna get smoked, go hear it live.
You might try the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Beethoven’s Last Night.” I know there’s a version of it on there, as well as some other very nice hard rock/heavy-metalish versions of some other Beethoven pieces. (The album is a rock opera so it also includes original TSO songs with words, but there’s some good Beethoven on it as well).
Solti’s is what you are looking for.
Von Karajan’s Beethoven often gets dunned for being too antiseptic, but the version I have of the Berliner’s Ninth is good enough for me. It’s the mid-to-late 80s version with the gold foil starburst cover.
I don’t know who performed it, but I really like the version on the soundtrack of Immortal Beloved.
Has anyone ever recorded Gustav Mahler’s “re-orchestrations” of the Beethoven symphonies? He beefed them up by adding a lot more instruments to the existing scores.
Tripler, obviously your stereo needs more power! 
I THOUGHT it was the 9th!! I couldn’t remember if it was the 5th or the 9th. But then again, I get the numbers confused with Beethoven’s 9th. Or 5th. Or whatever.
Hey, thanks guys. I’m going to start looking at a Barnes & Noble in Bismarck (I got a gift certificate for Xmas! Yay!). Will advise. . .
Tripler
Now my only remaining question is, who changed my thread title?
I’m writing this down on my “Lifelong list of things to do”.
It’s way above ‘Getting it on with a Dallas Cheerleader’ [sub]'specially since I’ve never even been to Dallas[/sub], but just underneath ‘Getting my legitimate, legal pilots lisence’.
I wonder who performs it in NYC. . .
Tripler
Again, thanks for clearing up my confusion guys!
Ditto. No other version I’ve heard holds a candle to this one.
D’oh, meant to add: Who did do that? 
Here’s something funny. After posting earlier, I thought it might be worthwhile to mention what version they use in the movie. IMDb didn’t list an artist, so I popped my DVD in and skipped to the end credits only to find there is no listing there at all. From the end credits, you would never even know that the Ninth was even used in the film.
Other than the fact that it is playing as the music credits roll by, I mean.
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the single greatest piece of music ever written. It runs about 78 minutes, depending on tempo. The movie Immortal Beloved is an homage to its creation, and very, very loosely based on Beethoven’s life. The version used in Immortal Beloved was conducted by the late Sir Georg Solti, and it is a very forceful recording. I have roughly half a dozen different recordings of the 9th, and all bring out different themes.
I’m partial to Leonard Bernstein’s. That was his last concert, I believe, and he actually reclined on stage for a period during the chorus.
There’s a snippet in one of the songs on Deep Purple’s Knebworth '85 album. Hmm, which one? Anyone?
It’s reassuring to see that nobody’s jumped in to say they liked the version in Fantasia.