The notes to this senseless hodge-podge of a program somewhat hopefully claim that these four pieces belong together by virtue of their offering four disparate takes on the 20th-century musical mainstream. Nice try. I can’t even give much credit to the performances, which barely rise to mediocre. Jackson Leung’s conducting is boring to a fault. Consider the big cello melody in the center of La Mer’s first movement, where Leung resolutely fails to observe Debussy’s “en animant” and “un peu plus movementé” indications, with lethal results (never mind his inability to give any rhythmic definition to the entry of the soft chorale in the coda).
Shostakovich’s Overture is one of his least-recorded works, and Leung hardly makes the case for its being better known, while Tangazo needs greater melodic and rhythmic profile from the audibly challenged orchestra. In Barber’s Second Essay, the backwardly-balanced brass barely manage to spit out the fugue subject, and the big climax at the very end suffers from timid percussion (which is odd, because it’s fine in La Mer–Mr. Leung, where were you?). In short, there is absolutely nothing valuable, special, or even slightly better than routine about this peculiarly programmed production, and consequently there is no reason on earth why you need to own it. [4/19/2007]
