Steve Schwartz:

>All that said, there are plenty of Bernstein performances that I believe
>not only don't  "come off," but are downright grotesque.  I think
>especially of the excruciatingly slow tempi in his late Mahler
>recordings.  It's like walking through a pool of 40-weight oil.
>The tempi call attention to themselves, and hence to the conductor
>rather than to the music, whether or not that was Bernstein's intent.
>In that sense, Bernstein draws fire.

I think that comment holds true for a number of the DG recordings that he
made towards the end of his life.  I recall particularly a Sibelius 2nd
that could most charitably be described as ponderous, and the last movement
of his Tchaikovsky 6th redefined self-indulgence.  That said, I love his
slow and powerful Shostakovich 7th on DG with, for some reason, the Chicago
Symphony.  But in general, my favourite Bernstein recordings are from the
50s and 60s.

OTOH, I seem to remember when Klemperer's tempos became slower and slower,
reviewers fell over themselves to find appropriate superlatives.  I suppose
there were good reasons for recording his Symphonie Fantastique, New World
and Pathetique, but I'd much rather have heard his Mahler 3rd.

Richard Pennycuick
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