Despite Ivor Bolton’s generally fine tempos and phrasing, authentic performance practice serves to undermine this rendition of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. The Mozarteum Orchestra’s paltry string sound, combined with its rather stingy approach to sustained note values conveys little of the music’s energy and passion, qualities that George Szell supplies in abundance. Interestingly, Szell provides all the clarity of texture and incisiveness of attack that the authenticists claim as their province–and he does it with the very “modern” Cleveland Orchestra.
Symphony No. 38 is no more successful. Again, Bolton paces the work well, demonstrating that he knows how to push its stylistic buttons. But the strings don’t generate the proper sound (listen to the radiant Vienna Philharmonic under Bernstein at the first movement’s exalted close), while the winds and brass sound muted in tutti passages. With Bolton’s suave andante and pointed, spirited finale, this could have been a very good performance. But even then it would be sabotaged by the murky recording. No, there are just too many really excellent recordings of these symphonies for you to even consider this disc.
