Marcus Maroney:

>Kathleen Battle/Vienna PO/Lorin Maazel (CBS/Sony 44908):  This recording
>is worth getting for the last movement alone.  Battle is ideal for this
>movement, and her singing is definitely childlike--her tone projects
>innocence and, yes, naivety unlike any other.(...) The other movements,
>while not quite on par with this achievement, are very good also.  This
>is a much more consistent reading that, say, Maazel's Fifth in the same
>Series, and just about all of the chances he takes pay off (whereas in
>the Fifth the majority don't).  I don't find his measured tempos at all
>intrusive, and I can't overstate how lovely the performance of the last
>movement is.

Tony Duggan asked me not to be too harsh on Maazel.  I think he's right.
As you say, "Wir geniessen.." sung by Kathleen Battle (damn!, I didn't
remember who was the soloist) is the best part of that recording, and it's
really good, indeed.  Concerning the other movements, I don't like the
"effeminate" way in which Maazel draws some passages, (the main theme
of the first movement, i.e,.), and some violent changes of tempo (the
recapitulations of the introductory passage [ostinato on the appoggiatura
g -f# ] i.e.).  The 3rd movement, also, (though performed by the incredible
strings of the Vienna PO) is not as "warm" as I like.

Pablo Massa
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