Title: Great sound, but tempos lag...
Product review: This recording has the excellent Philips label fidelity, but Haitink's conducting style here reminds me alot of a number of the old Otto Klemperer recordings, where Klemperer seemed, by comparison with other performances, to have set the record for the slowest tempos. Haitink's conducting is not quite like this, but close. It is as if he slows down passages just to savor the richness of the moment. But what seems to have happened is that he doesn't come across any "moments" he doesn't like, which results in the whole performance seeming to drag along. If you are fond of Haitink's style of interpretation, or that of Klemperer for that matter, you will probably like this performance. I personally prefer performances with brisker tempos overall.
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