Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen, with its circular sequences and self-referential passages, needs imaginative phrasing combined with a driving impetus if it’s not to sound like your CD player got stuck in a repeat loop somewhere in the middle. Barbirolli and the Philharmonia fill the bill nicely, as do Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic; Erich Bergel’s reading gets lost in the woods about halfway through. He sets a basic slow tempo and pretty much holds unyieldingly to it, leaving us to find our own way through Strauss’ meandering score. Nevertheless, the Camerata Transsylvanica plays beautifully throughout, even if it doesn’t match the stunning sheen cultivated by the Berlin Philharmonic strings for Karajan.
I’m afraid Bergel gets trounced again by Karajan in Honegger’s Symphony No. 2. Bergel’s stodgy tempos and foursquare phrasing make the music sound unduly sluggish, and though his orchestra’s reduced forces yield greater clarity, they lack the dramatic heft that makes the Berlin performance so gripping. The somewhat shallow recorded sound doesn’t help matters. For these two works you’re better off with separate discs.
