The CD booklet brags that the Brahms is a “World Premiere on CD”, but it’s hard to imagine anyone anxiously anticipating this hopeless, dead-on-arrival performance. The first two chords are taken so slowly and heavily it seems that Knappertsbusch is wielding a baseball bat instead of a baton. You would think that at this tempo the Berlin Philharmonic would be absolutely unanimous in its attack–and you’d be wrong! Lead-footed is the closest description I can find for Knappertsbusch’s slogging Allegro con brio(!), even slower than Bernstein’s Vienna misfire on DG. At least Bernstein maintained balance and consistency in his tempos, but Knappertsbusch is all over the place with several agogic distortions, such as the huge, disfiguring rallentando just before the recapitulation. The inner movements prove less disturbing–other than the slow gait for the Poco allegretto–but the finale is another disaster, completely lacking in fluid motion and thus drained of all tension. This isn’t helped by the harsh, distorted, dynamically limited sound.
After this, Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 is a real “surprise”–it’s actually a decent performance! Yes, the first movement introduction could use a shot of adrenaline, but the rest of the symphony flows along at reasonable (if slow-leaning) tempos that maintain the music’s energy and vitality. The relatively distortion-free sound is a noticeable improvement over the Brahms, which is all well and good, but so what? There are plenty of excellent Haydn 94s available in fine sound that aren’t partnered to dreadful Brahms Thirds. Take a pass on this one.
