Rudolf Kempe was an amazing orchestral colorist, and to do his best work he needed a large and varied palette: in other words, Romantic music. These mid-1950s performances, captured in dim stereo, offer plenty of elegant string playing and nice turns of phrase in the slow movements of the Haydn and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, but little else. In the overtures, brass and timpani hardly exist, wind parts add scant timbral contrast, and while Kempe’s tempos are generally swift and lively, the music obstinately refuses to take wing as a result of its barely discernible rhythmic underpinning. The Haydn is even duller, with a particularly stodgy minuet. You can do so much better in this music, and even Kempe collectors will find little here to justify the investment.
