Why does an audio CD hold 74 minutes’-worth of music?

Must be some technical reason for it, surely? Not at all says the NYT:

“In the early 1980’s, Sony was helping to develop a new digital music technology. Mr. Ohga, then the company’s president, insisted that no matter what else, the new format had to be able to play Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony without interruption. Mr. Ohga, you see, had been a classical vocalist before getting into electronics.”