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Re: impressive review

I have the Szell/Cleveland, Harnoncourt, and Klemperer stereo. The Klemperer is too slow for me. The Szell is pretty good, but there a few things about it I don't like. It's purely a matter of taste, but for me, like Toscanini '52, there is too much staccato on the quarter notes. It sounds to choppy and clipped--especially the 4th notes of the multitude of 4 note motifs in the first movement. It is not as exaggerated as Toscanini, but still too much. I also don't like the big retard on the final statement of the main motif near the end of the first movement. I agree with Solti when talking about his new fast approach--"show no pity". Keep the tempo as relentlessly constant as possible. Szell is almost purely objective most of the way through the first movement, with very crisp rhythm, the staccato quarter notes, lots of space between notes, no romanticism at all. The big retard just does not seem to fit. Harnoncourt is interesting, but the winds, especially the brass are a little out of control. They burst in too loud, brusque, and course in tone. The strings do a lot of decrescendos at the ends of phrases in the manner of the authentic performance crowd, which makes it sound very 18th century and laid back, and the brass come in like gang busters; it just doesn't seem very cohesive to me. The oboe "cadenza" near the end of the first movement sounds pathetic--anemic tone and bland phrasing. These are just my opinions, but hey, I know what I like and what I don't, and I am picky about this symphony. The other ones you mentioned I am not familiar with.

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