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 [log in to unmask]