Ashkenazy's Symphony in C is eager and well sprung, the busy counterpoint alive and kicking, the underlying moto perpetuo rhythms ticking over nicely. He has a good nose (and ear) for the parodistic Stravinskian burlesque is forever cocking a snook from behind classical airs and graces. I'm thinking especially now of the trumpet and trombone side-shows in the Allegretto. But there's elegance and charm, too, the oboe's fragrant bel canto coming on like Anne Truelove in the lovely Larghetto. First-class oboe playing—indeed first-class just about everything. If ever a piece separates the best from the rest, this one does. The treacherous wind chording at the beginning (dark threnody of bassoons and tolling trombones) and end of the finale can never be taken lightly: well-honed, well-tuned—nothing less will do.
The pause, incidentally, is nowhere near long enough before the vaulting opening measures of the Symphony in Three Movements are upon us. There's a fine pneumatic punch to those, if perhaps a shade too much piano lending that percussive ping to the texture. Nor do the trumpets quite make their mark, piled high on top of the orchestra, as the opening paragraph climaxes at around 1'45''. Compare notes with the high-tension Simon Rattle (EMI) at this point. No matter, the follow-through of Ashkenazy's reading is good, there isn't that broken-biscuit feel you get with some performances: it hangs together without hanging fire. Even the flute and harp-led Elysian pleasures of the Andante carry with them an underlying uncertainty, clarinets posing an oily threat early and late in the movement. High horns lead the goose-stepping march of the finale: you'll not hear more made of their unceremonious whoops, nor of the emphatic timpani and bass drum punctuations. But Ashkenazy doesn't quite nail that final C major chord. Again, the way in which Rattle (and indeed the composer himself on Sony) socks it home, a momentary suspension, just the blink of a luftpause before, will catch your breath. The third symphony, or Symphonies of Wind Instruments, provides all the confirmation you need that this Berlin wind ensemble is of the front rank. Euphonious is the word not least in the handsome chorale conclusion. Weil worth considering, then, though Rattle and the composer still make irresistible claims on both symphonies. I couldn't be without either.'