Title: Listless, mushy, pompous -- what's to like?
Review: Daniel Barenboim is welcome before all the world's great orchestras, but that doesn't guarantee world-class music-making. This Rite of Spring from Paris is decidedly listless, and since the orchestra isn't necessarily top notch, one notices some strain in the playing, particularly with the brass section. Maybe that's why the engineers placed them as far back as next week, so that we wouldn't notice. Barenbim's rhythms are mushy or "romantic," if you like this style better than I do. The accompanying Sym. of Psalms is very well sung and recorded, yet the conductor tries to soup it up with religiosity, just the thing this great modernist work doesn't need.
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