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| Philips (Full price) (CD) 442 117-2PH (59 minutes: DDD). |
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| Symphony No. 6 – selected comparison: |
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| LCP, Norrington (5/92) (EMI) CDC7 54210-2 |
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| Symphony No. 8 – selected comparison: |
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| LCP, Norrington (12/90) (EMI) CDC7 49968-2 |
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Bruggen's Unfinished is, beyond the period instruments, thoroughly traditional; its moderately paced first movement, replete with slowings and hesitations, is, gesturally, the old familiar epic-tragic utterance (compare Norrington's restless, taut, classical proportions) and the engineers provide a relatively distant sound with plenty of hall resonance (in other words, traditional atmosphere). Many will welcome this; I rather regret it. It is possible that many collectors, and I am one of them, view period-instrument and traditional modern instrument groups as fulfilling different roles in this kind of repertoire (it is also possible to see period-instrument groups as giving the Unfinished the premiere that history postponed; it had to wait over 40 years for a public performance, in 1865, the same year as the world first experienced Wagner's Tristan). Bruggen's team (musicians and technicians) effect a not wholly satisfactory compromise. So, you have the jabbing dotted figure on wind band and timpani in the first movement's development (from bar 18, 9'19") forcefully given, and intermittently obscuring the melody in the orchestra's flimsy strings (an assault that a larger body of modern strings would probably have been able to ride through), and, more generally, reverberant sound that reduces the textural yield you might have expected from period instruments.
The orchestra in the Sixth Symphony is slightly closer and much more focused, yet there remains an attractive ambient bloom. The rewards here are much greater: very stylish (rather than stylized) playing, with more wit and elegance in the timing and turns of phrase than the comparably fresh and uncomplicated Norrington (low horns rasp comically in the first movement's coda). There are, however, a couple of textual oddities: at the start of the first movement's development (from bar 155, 6'01") cellos and basses enter a bar behind the other strings; and in the Scherzo's Trio, there are an extra two bars into the repeat of the Trio's second half. I imagine these are intended, as there is no hint of indecision on either occasion. More worrying, though, is Bruggen's rescue operation for the finale, which begins as a very moderate Allegro moderato and ends up as a fizzing Presto (no tempo change is marked). To call this radical is an understatement.
JS