Point taken. I had deliberately not mentioned the Metamorphosen disc as I felt that the sound-scape was totally unsuited to this music. The lush Chandos sound and the "density" of the performance drown this tragic masterpiece. I will stick to Furtwangler and Karajan! I totally cannot understand how this disc was ever praised by so many critics
On a different angle, I would demur from "the excellence of the Chandos recordings" regarding, for example, Wilson's Roman trilogy disc. This seems to encapsulate a particular (British?) affectation for setting large orchestral recordings in overly resonant acoustics, where the wash of ambient sound not only obscures inner detail, but can fail to provide the home listener with a truly credible soundstage. These Respighi works, by their very titles, suggest music of the outdoors, and the Chandos venue of Saint Augustine's, Kilburn, seems (and certainly sounds to me) hardly appropriate.
I should add that I'm not alone in my observations - in a recent review of a Neeme Järvi CD on this site, Steve Vasta remarks that "the Chandos team reverts to its former default, an overresonant ambience that thickens the fuller textures".
Until late last year I had not had the opportunity to hear any John Wilson/Sinfonia of London recordings. Then a very generous son sent me 6 for Christmas. Since then my responses have gone from ”excellent” to “good in parts”. This set me wondering why such a change; I came to the conclusion that my first thoughts were clouded by the excellence of the Chandos recordings and the brilliance of Wilson’s orchestra.
As examples – the much lauded Pines of Rome is indeed good but surely, as a performance, nowhere near Reiner; just listen to Reiner’s build up in the final section and then compare with Wilson. Similarly on the ”Escales” disc – sounding brilliant – the Ravel is really rather poor when compared to another recent release by Trevino. Wilson has perfect playing but absolutely no atmosphere.
Finally, at the risk if heresy, the latest string music cd was also, a rather lesser, disappointment. In particular the Elgar which, from the stand-point of Barbirolli, lacks passion and “sweep” and often stutters along and all sounds a bit dis-jointed. The VW is better but again, to me, lacks the passion – that Silvestri and Barbirolli my markers here, bring to it.
I could go on and bore you but you get the point I hope! As I say, I seem to be a minority of one; are critical ears being deceived by the excellence of the playing and recording? Or do I need to seek advice from an audiologist?
OK, this is controversial, and no doubt will get a strong MWI response!
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