Farrer's slow basic tempos for Dances Nos. 2-4 sent me scurrying for the score. It's unlikely that the speed at which he launches No. 2 could be described as an allegretto (though, thankfully, the contrasting allegro vivo sections are sufficiently high spirited). The problem is that the marked rits., enthusiastically observed by the conductor (dutifully so by the orchestra), seem almost to bring the proceedings to a halt, and bring problems of coordination—the oboes and strings with different ideas of how much to slow down in bar 68 (2'41'') for example. The 'contrast-at-all-costs' approach is continued in No. 3 which begins at an amiable dawdle and then shoots off at twice the pace for the sections marked only piu mosso; and the Trio is even slower, ignoring Dvorak's indication to remain in tempo. But No. 4 is the saddest casualty: its outer sections sound either comatose (oboes and clarinets hopelessly dispirited after fig. A, 1'28'') or in the later tuttis, simply heavy handed. The participants in this Sousedska are suffering from a serious lack of mobility, and, here as elsewhere, it's hard to believe that one is listening to the string section of one of London's top orchestras—the cellos from bar 79 (4'10'') in the Trio do not make a pleasant sound.
Matters improve greatly as the programme progresses, most notably in those dances where there is least intervention from the rostrum, and the spectacular brilliance and depth of the sound (from St Barnabas, Mitcham) is immediately striking, with a wider range of dynamics than from DG for Kubelik or Supraphon/Koch International for Neumann. But I am troubled by the sound of the woodwind: the 'super-fi' breathy presence of flutes is all very pleasing, but the oboes benefit less from this high-frequency projection, and the bassoons feature very weakly. The woodwind-dominated Dance No. 14 has a lovely bassoon part, which is all but inaudible here, as is the short solo in No. 15 (at 2'18''). The balance afforded to Kubelik and Neumann allows you to savour a fuller complement of woodwind timbres—more of the body, less of the froth. There is also a bad edit in No. 5 at 2'19''.'