Joel Lazar wrote:

>I am very impressed with the Bakels/Bournemouth VW 9th; although I am not
>that fond of the rest of the set to date, moreover I've had serious doubts
>about the 9th since the first recording of it appeared 40 years back.

I like Bakels' Pastoral quite a bit, though the only other ones I know
are Haitink and Slatkin.  Both too smooth-- with that approach the piece
goes in one ear and out the other, kinda like with overrefined rec's of
Debussy's Sirenes.  On the Bakels, perhaps because the Bournemouth are a
"second tier" orchestra, the strings actually have some attack to them and
overall the orch doesn't sound like a big blended synth, something I felt
Haitink and Slatkin were guilty of here.  Also, if the doleful little
trumpet solo at the end of the slow movement is really supposed to evoke a
military bugler off by himself practicing, the somewhat awkward way it's
phrased here gives more of a sense of that, even if it's just due to the
trumpeter "choking up".  Anyway, for similar reasons of smoothness vs.
scrappy spirit, I was thinking of getting the Bakels disc with the 5th and
9th.  The 5th I have now is Haitink, and I think once again it might be too
smooth for this piece.  How is Bakels' 5th? Better than Haitink at least?

Jon Lewis
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