You want to admire this cycle. It’s well played and well recorded, and has had some impressive releases. But in the big, more popular works, such as the Fifth and (here) Sixth Symphonies, the competition is fierce. Alsop turns in a fleet performance of the first movement, light in texture, with little bite to the climaxes. I wouldn’t say that the performance lacks conviction; weight, rather, and that punch to the gut that we think of as typically Russian.
The Largo is a tough piece to pull off, and this performance holds together well, but again Alsop shortchanges the music’s darker undercurrents–those militant eruptions that can prove so startling when played with the necessary violence. Perhaps the finale comes off best: swift and dashing, but ultimately this isn’t really competitive with the reference versions.
However, I do have to say that the lightness of texture that harms the interpretation of the symphony suits the Waltz Suite quite well. That may not be enough to justify purchase of the whole disc, but as a separate download this comparative rarity is worth having on its own.
