Here are two vastly different performances of the same two works issued by Virgin Classics. Christoph Eschenbach has been Musical Director of the Houston Symphony since 1988. His disc was recorded last year and is issued at full price. Andrew Litton recorded his performances in 1988, although they have only been released now and are at bargain-price.
Eschenbach conducts the symphony's first movement introduction at a very deliberate tempo. Orchestral textures seem very solid and accents are heavy and emphatic. He then launches the exposition at a good, just tempo, but soon the pulse slackens and it becomes clear that in this work he very much favours the use of rallentando as an expressive device. The exposition is repeated, and so are marked (or should I say unmarked) fluctuations of tempo. These distortions seem doubly tiresome when heard the second time round. The remainder of the movement is similarly afflicted, and the coda in particular is played so slowly as to go quite beyond the bounds of plausibility.
Eschenbach conducts the slow movement in a somewhat ponderous, portentous fashion. The music does not flow and the effect is enervating, until the emergence of the solo violinist, whose Palm Court style is almost comically at variance with all that goes on around him. The third movement promises more but then drags badly, and in the finale Eschenbach's conducting is laboured until the coda, when he suddenly makes a sprint for the finishing tape. As a whole this performance somehow gives the effect of fighting the music's true spiritual nature.
The Academic Festival Overture is conducted in a more straightforward manner, but the performance as a whole is a little subdued. There are some very good individual contributions from orchestral soloists throughout both works, but in general the Houston Symphony's playing is not quite in the front rank. The sound-quality is good.
Andrew Litton's version is also well recorded, and the RPO's playing is superior to that of the American orchestra. Litton conducts a satisfying account of the symphony's first movement. His approach is fairly objective, but he uses a modest amount of rubato to good effect, and the playing is certainly expressive. The slow movement has a pleasingly mellow quality: some expressive points are made without distorting the shape of the music, and the third movement also flows easily and naturally. If the last movement's introduction lacks fire and urgency all is soon well, for as the musical argument develops so does Litton increase the power and tension of his conducting, and the coda's triumphal quality is very well brought out. This is not a great performance in any way, but it is very satisfying at a slightly lower level, and represents an excellent bargain, especially with a beautifully paced, warmly expressive account of the Overture as a fill-up.
At bargain-price Litton's only serious rival in both works is Skrowaczewski on Pickwick, whose dramatic, spirited readings are captured in very good sound. At full-price Chailly on Decca conducts thoughtful, responsive performances, superbly played and recorded. Gunter Wand's magnetic, glowing account of the symphony with the NDR orchestra has returned once more, but only as part of an RCA mid-price three-CD set comprising all the symphonies. Klemperer's immensely strong, compelling 1956 performance is reissued in good sound on a mid-price EMI disc, but my own choice would be Toscanini's extraordinarily virile and dramatic interpretation on mid-price RCA. His performance is served perfectly well by a good 1951 mono recording.'