Something is odd here. The titles of the works are given only in German, and so are the notes. Is EMI merely importing product with no effort made at a genuine international marketing strategy? Was this issue a “rush” release in tandem with the orchestra’s recent international tour? If so, it’s a telling turn of events, and frankly one I don’t find especially surprising. Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic are living on reputations created decades ago, by a combination of intensive recording (thank you, Herbert von Karajan) and fawning in the British press. Releases such as this merely emphasize how far the mighty have fallen.
It goes without saying that the orchestra has all the notes, and the string section, as usual, plays impressively. But what about everyone else? The brass section seems afflicted with aural anemia. The opening Promenade fails to stride forth with the necessary positive energy. The tuba solo in Bydlo is as poorly phrased as you will ever hear, while the attenuated legato at the eruption of the Great Gate of Kiev makes one of the score’s great moments a total non-happening. In the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks the woodwinds are notably flat and colorless (also at the opening of the Polovtsian Dances). It’s not bad per se, but it is characterless, just the opposite of what you want in Russian music.
Rattle, it seems, encourages this corporate facelessness so as to highlight his own ideas, such as they are. These include affected phrasing in the central section of Tuileries, and a conclusion of The Great Gate taken slower than the brass section seems able to handle–so much so that the strings and brass can’t even sustain their notes for the same length of time. In the Borodin Symphony, a better performance overall, the symphony’s opening motto suffers from Rattle’s odd speed-ups and tenutos, but the rest is correct. The dances come off best, aside from their introduction, evidence that these forces actually can offer both brilliance and power when they want. I’m inclined to blame Rattle for this disappointment: As the orchestra proved in its recent Ravel recordings under Boulez, it can play orchestral blockbusters stunningly given sufficient encouragement. Ultimately, this dryly engineered disc is an essay in affectation, and as I said at the beginning of this review, it’s telling that EMI seems be treating it as a concert souvenir for local audiences.
