This 5-CD set presents a collection of recordings from Decca’s back catalog covering some of the major symphonic works from the late 18th to the early 20th century. One could argue with some of the repertoire (Bruckner is conspicuously absent), but for the most part, performance choices were well considered.
CD1 gets off to a rough start with Vladimir Ashkenazy somewhat miscast as the protagonist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 with the Philharmonia. You can tell that Ashkenazy loves this music, and dearly wants to give a great performance, but it seems he just hasn’t gotten a hold of the piece yet. Where the reading is not overly exaggerated, it falls flat. The 1982 digital recording is very unflattering. Istvan Kertesz conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a fine reading (1973) of the Brahms Third. The sweet string sound of the opening instantly identifies the orchestra as Viennese and Kertesz puts this quality to use in his unusually warm interpretation. Nothing groundbreaking or revelatory here, just the usual standard of excellence from an ensemble that knows these symphonies better than anybody.
On CD 2 Herbert von Karajan’s 1960 Mozart Symphony no. 40, also with Vienna, is a pleasant surprise. There are little of the homogenized sonorities he is famous for (though the opening theme is played very legato) and the tempos lean to the quick, with plenty of accents. A fine performance. Next, Zubin Mehta leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a winning performance of the Saint-Saens organ symphony, recorded in 1970. The playing is colorful, with many inner details exposed (especially the lower brass and tuba). Mehta’s slow movement is done with much feeling, but the grand finale is let down by constricted organ sound.
CD 3 brings us Antal Dorati’s 1974 performance of Haydn’s Symphony no. 94 (the “Surprise”) from his complete set with the Philharmonia Hungarica. Dorati is a master of the style–tempos are exciting, phrasing is intelligent and balances are clear. At first it seemed an unfortunate choice to include Zubin Mehta’s 1977 recording of the Schubert Ninth when Decca’s classic version by Josef Krips’s was available, but Mehta has the Israel Philharmonic sounding surprisingly robust. His tempos are lively and he conducts with flair, to which the players respond enthusiastically.
CD 4 finds Kertesz again leading the VPO in a 1961 performance of Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony. Even though this basically lyrical, yet vibrant, rendition is played with much more ferocity than his later remake with the LSO, the cramped and distorted sonics mitigate any interpretive gains. The London Symphony shines, though, in a 1970 recording of Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony with Claudio Abbado at the helm. The reading is well paced, energetic and more incisive than their better-sounding 1980’s redo.
CD 5 makes George Szell’s famous 1962 Tchaikovsky Fourth available once again. Szell’s reading is taut, intense and passionate, the London Symphony Orchestra’s playing is highly alert–though one wonders how this would have sounded with his own Cleveland Orchestra. The recording distorts slightly in the louder passages. Lorin Maazel’s Sibelius Seventh from his excellent 1966 complete cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic makes a fine conclusion to this set. This is one of the work’s great recordings–Maazel’s interpretation is fluid, dynamic and powerful, and the VPO play as if they are on the edge of their seats with excitement.
These CD’s lack the vivid clarity of today’s remasterings, and sound as if they were transferred at a low sampling rate. This certainly doesn’t help in the recordings that were dynamically limited to begin with. However, for the newcomer who isn’t too finicky about the sonics, this set can provide an engagingly serious introduction the world of classical music.
