Seldom has so much obvious talent and skill resulted in such unstylish, even perverse results. The Freiburger Barockorchester continues to impress as the ugliest ensemble, tonally speaking, on disc. The players seem to have banished any notion of making an attractive, vocally expressive sound, a fact that is even more demented with an opera-specialist conductor like Jacobs at the podium. But then, he’s just as much a part of the problem. Mozart’s great G minor symphony, taken at a blistering pace, still sports a 15-minute slow movement. It’s played with little or no vibrato, all of its repeats, and is so inexpressive and mechanically paced, so far removed from period style, heck, from basic musicality, that it’s shocking. Listening is a punishment.
Similarly, in the finale of Symphony No. 39, Jacobs’ random and narcissistic manipulations of dynamics suck the humor right out of the music and reveal little more than a desire to be different for its own sake. I could go on citing one example after another, but there’s no need. The fact is that everything about these performances is “modern” in the worst sense, not least in their celebration of interpretive mannerism. Jacobs, often so interesting in his primary role as operatic accompanist, obviously has a lot to learn as a symphonic conductor. The engineering is vivid, but also unpleasantly close. Why must we hear Jacobs gasp to give the beat (at the start of the 40th symphony’s minuet, for example)? In short, for all the technical ability on display, this is a profoundly alienating and unpleasant experience.
