Marek Janowski has some very good ideas about how this symphony should go, and a few less good ones. On the plus side he shapes the opening paragraph, through the big unison main theme, with a flexibility of pulse that’s quite arresting, and very persuasive. Similarly, at the dissonant climax of the slow movement Janowski holds back the brass for the first two repetitions of the Adagio’s opening motive, and then really cuts loose as the music drives to the final crisis. The effect is really terrifying, particularly as it allows you to hear the wild violin writing before the strings get blown away by the final onslaught of the trombones.
On the other hand, the scherzo really lacks something in rhythmic energy. The brass textures are well differentiated, but compared to, say, Jochum’s laser-sharp savagery this version falls flat. Janowski’s tempo shifts in the Adagio also lack conviction; in particular he rushes the “cosmic sound” climaxes, which need more presence from the trumpets and horns. None of this is awful, and the orchestra plays very well, even if not on the level of Giulini’s Vienna Philharmonic. The engineering also is warmly natural in all formats, but the problem is simply that there are so many excellent versions of this symphony that unless you absolutely must have multichannel sound, this newcomer really isn’t competitive with the best.
