This impressive new version of the Symphonie fantastique‚ generously coupled with the love scene from Roméo et Juliette‚ celebrates the arrival of Paavo Järvi as the new music director (from September this year) of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Over the last few years Jesœs López­Cobos has demonstrated on a series of discs from Telarc that this is one of a formidable group of American orchestras outside the topmost league that can readily claim international status. Here‚ with vivid Telarc sound engineered by Jack Renner‚ the brilliance of Berlioz’s orchestration is brought out in finely detailed sound with textures clarified. Järvi’s interpretation of the Symphonie fantastique is generally fresh and clean cut‚ with speeds closer to the relatively spacious ones Sir Colin Davis adopts on his latest version for LSO Live than the more urgent ones of Myung­Whun Chung on DG. Every section of the obviously very well­rehearsed orchestra is on top form with not a note out of place. Yet next to those two fine versions I confess that I find a slight lack of spontaneity‚ and more particularly of the dramatic thrust‚ the atmospheric intensity that is really needed in this vividly programmatic work. The differences may be slight‚ emerging the more clearly in close comparison‚ but ironically the quality which the brilliant young Paavo Järvi here seems to lack to a degree on disc is the very characteristic that has regularly marked the recordings of his father Neeme. Even when an orchestra has evidently been far less well rehearsed‚ Neeme conveys the illusion of live communication as in a concert hall rather than a studio. With Paavo‚ alas‚ the results are again studio­bound in the Roméo et Juliette love scene‚ for all the sensuousness of the orchestral textures. Needless to say‚ the ‘Witches’ Sabbath’ at the end of the work builds up a thrilling climax‚ but too often‚ for all the precision‚ there is a slight feeling of caution‚ an absence of risk­taking. I am sure that Järvi and the Cincinnati orchestra will very quickly overcome any inhibitions over recording‚ if that is what the problem is. Maybe they should experiment with what has become increasingly common‚ the editing together of live performances‚ as in the latest Colin Davis issue.