An orchestra of all-stars does not an all-star orchestra make, evidently. This hand-picked ensemble assembled for the 2003 Lucerne Festival, liberally spiked with famous names (members of the Hagen Quartet, cellist Natalia Gutman) for the most part plays like a decent provincial band, but world-class it certainly is not. Beyond that, there's the question of what business Claudio Abbado had in approving the release of his third recording of Mahler's Second Symphony, and whether or not there was any point in releasing it anyway, given the current state of the market and the general dullness of this conductor's last rendition with the Vienna Philharmonic (his first, with the Chicago Symphony, remains his best by far).

Interpretively there's nothing new here. Abbado's still far too placid in the scherzo, which flows along as if anesthetized, with unremarkable wind solos. He also rushes the final chorus in a manner that conveys impatience rather than excitement. The first movement is well shaped but let down by near-complete inattention to coloristic detail: no quiet tam-tams under the marching cellos and basses, inaudible timpani fanfares at the movement's climax (of all places), and recessed winds. Similarly in the finale the lower brass make little impression, and the ensemble generally is poorly balanced, dryly as well as distantly recorded (no impact in the bass). The strings play well throughout, but the overall impression the orchestra makes comes across as a sort of parody of the Berlin Philharmonic--that is, a great string band with far less interesting contributions from the other departments. The two soloists do a good job, and the chorus is adequate if not ideally disciplined (note the imprecise downbeat on the word "Sterben" at the big climax). However fine this may have sounded live (and I doubt that it did), few special qualities have been sufficiently preserved to warrant general release.

The performance of La Mer is more interesting, when it isn't simply weird. Among Abbado's ideas: an evident attempt to minimize the impact of the big brass choral as much as possible at the ends of both the first and third movements. He entirely ignores Debussy's dynamics in the first-movement lead-in (no crescendo from brass, timpani, and suspended cymbals, and strangely loud upper woodwinds). The big final crescendo is so loud and vulgar that it sounds like another piece, but it has to be said that it's also very exciting. More than that, the coupling of this work to the Mahler makes no sense other than as a souvenir of the 2003 Lucerne Festival. The notes, which are nothing but shameless puffery, suggest as much. That may be enough for the people who actually attended (and whose polite but obvious presence is quite cleanly caught by the microphones), and no doubt the festival itself is basking in what it expects will be some excellent PR; but the performances themselves have no claim on the attentions of collectors, which is, I think, rather more to the point.

--David Hurwitz