|
Review by dc October 27, 2007 (11 of 19 found this review helpful)
|
|
| I wanted an SACD version of this work and had tried Albers recording with the Braunschweig Orchestra, which was good performance-wise but recorded at a ridiculously low level. But the performance had something and was involving and the sound was impressively panoramic once you upped the level. (waterfall among the best). When I bought this issue, generously coupled, I did it mainly for the sound. I didn't think it would match Sinopoli's recording. So it has proved. As I write this I am thinking of Sinopoli's summit with the DS's marvellously idiosyncratic brass anc the start to the storm, which is marvellously sinister. However, I can only remember two things of Luisi's performance: complete absence of orchestral character (it may as well be the Cincinatti SO playing), no trills on the horns at the climax ("WHAT!!!"), which is enough to leave this performance alone. The recording is metallic and by no means as involving as Sinopoli's or even Albers for that matter. And also there is the incredibly horrible glitch at the big crescendo in "Beim Schlafengehen". I simply cannot live with this and anticipate it every time. WHY WASN'T THIS RE-TAKEN? The final movement "Im Abendrot" is taken in slow motion (as usual). WHY? Karajan, Fürtwängler and Böhm show how a faster tempo here makes the music so much more exciting and moving. The imagery is of this song is a sunset which disappears into twilight. Karajan recognizes this best of all in his stereo sound (although I do find him a bit slow and lugubrious other movements). I don't like Luisi's singer at all, but that is personal taste. Mono or not, Della Casa is the only one for me, although Janowitz and Flagstad run her a close second. This release is a bit of a also-ran. Would you climb up to a summit with no horn-trills?
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
Sonics: 
