Why would an orchestra almost miraculously able and willing to hang on to the conductor’s every seemingly half-the-usual-tempo and gorgeously halting way in many of the Valses nobles et sentimentales also own a Luddite tambourine, bass drum and rolled cymbal who come in several bars early in one of the climaxes of La valse: this ‘rewrite’ starts at fig. 70 in the Durand score (track 19, from 2'10'')? Was there no session time left to do a retake?
It is an isolated episode; ensemble is generally good. As to Nagano’s slow tempos (as well as much of the Valses nobles, there is the “Habanera” from the Rapsodie, and an expansive La valse); whether these realize previously unimaginable sorcery from the scores (the LSO’s playing is superb), or whether the scores are being used for self-regarding exploitation, will depend on your point of view. I certainly prefer the dance to be more in evidence in both waltz pieces; the reissued LSO Monteux La valse, for example, proves that a dance of death can have a spring in its step, a touch of Offenbach (or should it be Les Six?) lurking in the wings, and be spiced with successful and very humorous ‘rewrites’ (extra castanets, and one moment of transcendental tonguing from the trumpets when a quick-fire ascent is changed from quaver duplets to quaver triplets). However, Monteux’s 1964 sound, though finely balanced, can hardly claim the range and brilliance of Nagano’s.
But the Erato sound, from Abbey Road, is not beyond reproach. Ideally it needs a conductor to balance properly the closing minute of the Rapsodie’s “Feria” if it is not, at times, to seem a stampede of brass and percussion: take, for instance, the bars leading up to fig. 26 (track 4, 5'41''), a point at which Reiner, Monteux and Dutoit hold back the heavies to let the woodwind through, and where Nagano, like many others, is just a noise (perhaps a different microphone set-up would have improved on the distant, splashy-sounding percussion here). Otherwise, no complaints, but not much to enthuse about either. Now, if you turn to Haitink’s 1970s Duo compilation, you will find a Menuet antique with a far more rewarding variety of wind timbres, and indeed, for all the pieces which turn up on Nagano’s disc, a more exciting presence for instruments equally distantly placed (and a touch of tape hiss).'