There’s nothing bad here, but also nothing particularly arresting or distinguished. All of the music is well played, but if you compare Rattle’s Symphony in C to Karajan’s with this same orchestra, two facts become immediately apparent. First, there is the distinctly superior orchestral response in the older recording: the greater variety of color and accent, the warmer string timbre, and a wider dynamic range. Karajan’s tempos are also just a bit livelier than Rattle’s, and it makes a difference. Second, EMI’s dessicated sonics for Rattle make the situation worse than it probably was in real life, with tuttis sounding particularly tinny and lacking in body.
Not that Rattle gets off scott-free. His main idea in the Symphony of Psalms is to take the finale’s coda extremely slowly, with a muddy legato that isn’t so much timelessly spiritual as it is dreary and dirge-like. Given his training and relative youth, I find the lack of tension and bite in all of these performances quite surprising. The slow movement of the Symphony in Three Movements is beautifully done, but the outer sections hang fire, particularly the latter half of the first movement. Of course, collectors have some highly desirable options in exactly this coupling, including Stravinsky’s own stereo performances for Sony, which rank with his finest recordings. Michael Tilson Thomas and the LSO also deliver the goods, and in much better sound than what EMI offers here. Just another ho-hum production from Berlin.
