How fast should Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony be performed?

Conductor Benjamin Zander poses before rehearsing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra in Calderwood Studio at WGBH in Boston. Photo: AP

Benjamin Zander is convinced Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony should sound far different than most people are accustomed to hearing it, and the soon-to-be 84-year-old conductor will race through it in about an hour during performances in Boston and New York this week.

Nearly two centuries after the composer’s most famous work premiered on May 7, 1824, in Vienna, Austria, there’s disagreement over what tempi the four-movement masterpiece should be performed.