This release is a disappointment to me. How frustrating Simon Rattle can be! The composers he seems to make a name with (like Sibelius and Mahler) do little for me in his recordings, yet sometimes, even against other critical opinion, I find great illumination from his Beethoven set and even his Bruckner. This is not one of those times, and too many of his recordings sound as if his heart is just not in them—the recent Carmina Burana is another example.
This disc does not even measure up to EMI’s usual high standards. The promotional disc I have is in German only in the notes, and though track listings are provided there are no timings whatsoever, even though the disc is quite generous in that department as you can see in the heading. But the sound, particularly in the Mussorgsky, is compressed and congested even though it has great warmth and smoothness. I was reminded of an older analogue recording, yet without the best qualities of the finest of those. Interpretatively Rattle sleeps through Pictures, showing certain willfulness in phrasing and tempo that makes no musical sense, and in one case (right near the final big theme in The Great Gate of Kiev) slows down so much as to stop musical momentum and wreck the ending. The orchestra also is not as sharp and clean as we have come to expect, and I wonder how quickly this was thrown together. All one need do is to compare it with Karajan’s 1966 classic recording on DGG to see what is missing—though that conductor’s strength was never necessarily in the tightness of ensemble department, his majestic tempos and broad, spacious recording easily eclipse this one, as do any of other classic readings from Bernstein, Ormandy (especially the newly-remastered Sony “Great Performances” issue) or the SACD Reiner/Chicago, to name just a few.
The Borodin fares better, the sound more vibrant, but even here when compared with the outstanding and archetypal reading by Loris Tjeknavorian on RCA (along with the Polovtsian Dances) we find better sound and a heightened sense of excitement and commitment than what Rattle and the Berliners find. EMI seems to have Rattle and the Berlin Phil churning out “greatest hits” at a rapid rate, and while Rattle certainly is a fine conductor with much to say, I get the feeling that this assembly-line production method is not going to have lasting value in many cases. Not all conductors are successful in all repertory, and Rattle needs to think twice before throwing his entry into a ring that is littered with the greatest recordings of the past. For diehard Rattle fans only.
— Steven Ritter
