Riccardo Muti's Schumann is masterful, disciplined and strong, mainstream in its choice of tempos, and mindful of the occasional thickets in Schumann's orchestration (the VPO's special timbres, of course, give most conductors a head start in this area, and the superb balance is also the work of Muti's producer, Volker Straus). Full-price honours in this coupling are evenly divided between Muti and his milder mannered (musically speaking) compatriot, Riccardo Chailly. In the Spring Symphony, Chailly's woodwind and brass detailing, his general good humour (especially in the finale) and the more open spaces of the Concertgebouw incline me towards his version.
The Fourth suits Muti's temperament rather better: his slow introduction is more momentous and mysterious, and the transition to the finale more mysterious and then powerfully majestic. There is variety in Schumann's repetitions, most noticeably in the second movement's oboe and cello theme, but also in the first movement development's 'repeat' (both conductors take all exposition repeats), and marginally slower tempos give Schumann's argument a little more, though never too much, weight.
Unusually for these digital days, there are faint traces of overload distortion in the Spring Symphony's first movement (in the right-hand channel). Elsewhere, the recording reproduces a very wide dynamic range cleanly.'