If you attended Roger Norrington’s Salzburg Festival performance with the Camerata Academica Salzburg on July 27, 1998 but dozed off while the music played, don’t panic. Orfeo has released the concert on CD, and you’ll readily hear that Norrington, too, slept through a good portion of his own concert, figuratively speaking! From the strings’ monochromatic sonority and lifeless, scurrying scales in the outer movements to an Andante bereft of charm and tenderness, Norrington reduces the vitality and wit of Mozart’s Divertimento in D K. 136 to wallpaper music. Likewise, Stravinsky’s Danses concertantes is rendered characterless and dull. The important brass and wind commentaries in the opening Marche are unduly recessed while the second movement’s flute flourishes have no sparkle and shape. True, the horn and oboe solos in the long variation movement are lovely, but the dynamic and thematic relationships from one instrument to another need clearer delineation from the podium. In fact, the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Ensemble achieves clearer, perkier, and shapelier results all around. Norrington and company wake up for a crisp and committed final Marche: too little, too late.
Last, and almost least, Norrington plows through the first movement of Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony with tapered diminuendos in the mincing style of Harnoncourt’s Concertgebouw recording, albeit not as exaggerated. While Norrington’s Menuetto has a nice lilting line and admirable woodwind blend in the Trio, not even the advantage of reduced forces stops Norrington from skewing the Finale’s polyphonic components. Turn to George Szell’s matchless Cleveland “Jupiter” and hear how a master conductor can balance the orchestral stands by following Mozart’s lines through to their logical destination. Don’t be fooled by the heightened timpani presence–its intrusive thunder can’t help this performance any more than spicy ketchup can salvage an undercooked burger. Out of this disc’s 74 minutes, I tally about seven minutes’ worth of excellent music making. Still want to buy it?
