Most performances of the glorious Ninth run 59--63 minutes

It's coming back to me now.....they based it on the famous performance of the 9th by the narcoleptic Russian conductor Somnolensky.

Boy, I've got the bug now. This may be another urban legend, but I do remember reading about it a long time ago. I searched some CD FAQ sites, and a few had pointers to supposed histories (and even reference to this "9th" factoid) but they were a dead end from a truth/provenance standpoint.

More to come...

(edit: Well, I did find another reference to it on urbanlegends.com that cites a book "Ken C. Pohlmann, _The Compact Disc Handbook_, 2nd Ed., 1992 (ISBN 0-89579-301-6)" and goes on to cite the following from that and another source: "Why 74 minutes? Pohlmann doesn't know either. He says: 'According to one version of history, the 74-minute time was selected because conductor Herbert von Karajan, a Polygram artist**, demanded a 74-minute capacity so his favorite piece, Beethoven's _Ninth Symphony_, would fit on a single disc. The other version claims the wife of Sony chairman Akio Morita insisted that Beethoven's _Ninth Symphony_, her favorite piece, fit on a disc.' Neither version is attributed." .....and the same UL page provides another snip from an interview by Nancy Herther in the July 1992 _CD-ROM Professional_ ("The Past, Present and Future of the Compact Disc, Multimedia and the Industry: An Interview with Dr. Toshi Doi"). Dr. Doi is a Director of the Sony Corporation, and helped invent the compact disc. On p. 21:
" Q. I've heard different stories about the beginnings of the compact disc. Could you please tell us how the compact disc came to be the 12 cm disc that it is.
A. Mr. Oga from Sony decided the size of the compact disc. We had a big debate with Philips on the size of the CD disc. I was pushing 10 cm, because it was a round number and a very small disc. Sony was very interested in having a portable CD player from the very beginning. Philips was pushing for a much larger disc***. Mr. Oga finally made the decision that he wanted something which could hold the entire Beethoven's 9th Symphony on a single disc. That was a very good decision and as good of a reason as any other."

The interview actually seems more credible -- unless Doi just enjoys perpetuating a good joke!)