The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra sounds absolutely glorious on this recording, the magnificently ringing horns in perfect balance with strings and winds. Riccardo Chailly directs a lively, vigorous performance that’s a far cry from his soft-edged, disappointingly limp Ninth Symphony of last year. However, he does indulge in one mannerism at two points in the first movement that some listeners may find annoying. At the grand passage leading to the recapitulation, and then again in the movement’s last bars, he suddenly drops the dynamic to piano in order to make an unmarked crescendo. The result is more disconcerting than exciting, but it’s not a major issue. On the plus side, he turns in as fine a performance of the finale as you’re ever likely to hear, with a spectacular coda that for once isn’t upstaged by the ending of the first movement. In sum, Chailly’s is a superb version of this joyous symphony, and the coupling with four Goethe songs by Hugo Wolf is interesting, if musically irrelevant. [9/27/1999]
