This very same program was presented during James Levine’s first season as music director of the Boston Symphony. No doubt it was a different experience playing American music with the Munich musicians, who actually do a pretty decent job of it. With the growing internationalization of orchestral playing styles we’ve just about come to the point when anyone from anywhere can play just about anything–a far cry from 20 years ago, when hearing a German orchestra desperately trying to sound “cool” in Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story was a real gut-buster. Still, Levine seems to be hedging his bets in Gershwin’s Cuban Overture by taking it so fast that you don’t really notice that the Munich musicians haven’t quite got the feel of the Afro-Cuban rhythms (they’re a bit too stiff and metronomic, though some of this may be Levine’s fault).
John Harbison’s Symphony No. 3 offers a different challenge. While Harbison’s rhythms are sourced in the European tradition, they’re not particularly easy, interspersed as they are with driving, dancing syncopations. The Symphony begins in a hard-edged sound-world reminiscent of William Schuman, but the music soon begins to disentangle itself, and by the end abounds in vibrant, neo-tonal declamations. It’s an engaging work that pays dividends on repeated hearing.
The Ives Second Symphony must have felt more or less like home turf for the Munich orchestra, as the composer consciously emulated Brahms and Dvorák while spiking the work with American folk tunes and popular songs. Levine leads with impressive energy and drive, even if he misses that distinct cocksureness Bernstein always brought to his performances. The live recording is a bit dry, with a rather narrow sound stage, but is otherwise suitable. Except for the Harbison, this release has value mainly for concert collectors and curious listeners.
