Serge Koussevitsky’s posthumous memory has worn poorly in the years since his death in 1951. That’s why we should be grateful for recordings like this splendid new one that give us a chance to appreciate how he built the Boston Symphony into a virtuoso ensemble capable of executing Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony at the break-neck tempos he takes in its first and fourth movements. The rest of this CD is made up of heavier stuff: the Tchaikovsky “symphonic fantasia” Francesca da Rimini restrains tempo-bending foolery in favor of intensity of expression. The Shostakovich–a companion to the Eighth Symphony the conductor began but never completed on disc–reveals a keen sympathy for this composer’s characteristic combination of bleak lyricism and nose-thumbing comedy. Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfers faithfully reproduce the lack of high-end extension of the original 78s as well as RCA’s baleful use of limiting on the bigger orchestral climaxes. [11/12/1999]
