Two impressive performances. While both symphonies are well represented on LP and CD neither has been coupled together before and thus together they offer more than 65 minutes playing-time. Paavo Berglund's account of the Sixth Symphony was one of the best in his earlier LP-only cycle with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (EMI ASD3155, 2/76—nla) but I never much cared for his low-voltage First (ASD3216, 12/76—nla). However, this newcomer is an entirely different matter: it is untouched by routine, and has a breadth and concentration that hold the listener from first to last. Comparing him with his gifted young compatriot, Esa-Pekka Salonen, whose account of the Fifth I reviewed recently (CBS IM42366, MK42366, 12/87), less emphasis is placed on sheer beauty of texture (though I hasten to add that the sonority he gets from the Helsinki Philharmonic is full-bodied and often refined as well as subtle in balance).
Symphony No. I begins atmospherically with clarinet playing of much beauty. Mind you, the second violins' entry at the very opening brought me up with a start: it is marked mf but sounds ff! There is a powerful sense of line throughout this movement and an imaginative handling of the development, though I would have preferred (just before letter H) the poco a poco piu stretto to be a bit more poco a poco. I like the slow movement too, which strikes me as ideally paced, and which has great tenderness and poetic feeling. Again, I thought the quickening of tempo at letter C (un poco meno andante) perhaps a little steep, but Berglund doesn't make too much of the commas in the closing paragraph, which worried me in Simon Rattle's performance (EMI). The scherzo has plenty of fire though and is up to speed—which it isn't with Rattle. There are some slight miscalculations of balance: the woodwind (at 13 before F in the slow movement) marked pp sound more or less f and the flute's intonation towards the end of the theme beginning at letter I of the scherzo is not quite true. But who cares about such small items when everything else is right?
In Symphony No. 6 I thought the scherzo a little too measured—I would not want to hear the third movement rushed off its feet as in the pioneering 78rpm Schneevoigt/HMV account but this is just a shade too steady—and slower than in Berglund's Bournemouth recording. The finale is perhaps slow for an Allegro molto (here his approach does not differ from the earlier recording) but it has conviction—and he gets a quite other-worldly atmosphere in the closing bars. The engineering is excellent and my only quarrel here is a familiar one: that there is not a long enough pause between movements.
In any event, these performances can hold their own with the competition: in No. 1, neither Ashkenazy (Decca), who is excellent, nor Rattle, are so generously coupled. Karajan's, which is superbly played (EMI), is now available on CD at mid price but at full price on LP. Irrespective of couplings, the 1986 Karajan version of No. 6 (EMI) is really in a class of its own, but this is so far available only on LP. The 1962 Karajan/DG (also on LP only) is very fine too and Sir Colin Davis and the Boston orchestra should not be overlooked either (Philips—the CD is part of a four-disc set). However, as must be obvious from the above, I have to say the new Berglund is warmly recommended.'