I disagree.
Originally posted by jayne lee wilson
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I don't know what Frosty the Snowman thinks, but the NYPO and Alan Gilbert didn't warm me up much with their account of Nielsen's 2nd.
Broadly, whilst Gilbert glories in the climaxes he rather leaves quieter passages to look after themselves; they're very under-characterised, even anonymous. The Choleric movement is bullish rather than angry, entirely missing the essential waspish snap of the most idiomatic readings. The Phlegmatic movement rather too literally expresses its title - we look for a bucolic tipsiness here, not an evocation of rehearsal-room boredom. If I became very gloomy indeed in the midst of the following, wallowing Melancholia, it was more a case of waiting for the interminable thing to end than an emotional empathy. As Fanning put it, this "movement is distinctly lacking in flow"...
He goes on "[Gilbert] takes almost every espressivo or tranquillo as an invitation to luxuriate [...] and the result is a near-fatal loss of momentum in many of the lyrical passages". I would add that this clearly applies to the outer movements, especially damaging in the recapitulation of (i), followed by a coda whose colic is very phlegmatic indeed!
I listened to this as a 24/96 Flac file, which should be accurate as that is its native recorded format; but of course it's possible that the CD/SACD incarnations may differ in some respects. Having said that, I would not be impressed with the sound even on a plain vanilla CD. It's fairly smooth and clear, with a good dynamic range; but woodwind detail is rather distant, and there's a dullness (occasionally a bass-heaviness) to the sound which fails to give us much sense of the acoustic, and it comes vacuum-packed - all atmosphere (what little there is) taken out between the movements, and a rapid silence after the final climax and reverberation.
And, as you'll gather, no applause from me.
Broadly, whilst Gilbert glories in the climaxes he rather leaves quieter passages to look after themselves; they're very under-characterised, even anonymous. The Choleric movement is bullish rather than angry, entirely missing the essential waspish snap of the most idiomatic readings. The Phlegmatic movement rather too literally expresses its title - we look for a bucolic tipsiness here, not an evocation of rehearsal-room boredom. If I became very gloomy indeed in the midst of the following, wallowing Melancholia, it was more a case of waiting for the interminable thing to end than an emotional empathy. As Fanning put it, this "movement is distinctly lacking in flow"...
He goes on "[Gilbert] takes almost every espressivo or tranquillo as an invitation to luxuriate [...] and the result is a near-fatal loss of momentum in many of the lyrical passages". I would add that this clearly applies to the outer movements, especially damaging in the recapitulation of (i), followed by a coda whose colic is very phlegmatic indeed!
I listened to this as a 24/96 Flac file, which should be accurate as that is its native recorded format; but of course it's possible that the CD/SACD incarnations may differ in some respects. Having said that, I would not be impressed with the sound even on a plain vanilla CD. It's fairly smooth and clear, with a good dynamic range; but woodwind detail is rather distant, and there's a dullness (occasionally a bass-heaviness) to the sound which fails to give us much sense of the acoustic, and it comes vacuum-packed - all atmosphere (what little there is) taken out between the movements, and a rapid silence after the final climax and reverberation.
And, as you'll gather, no applause from me.
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