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Review title: Levine is wonderful, best in the Bartered Bride excerpts
Product review: Levine was making some brash, over-driven recordings with the Berlin Phil. and the Chicago Sym. on DG (Sibelius Second and Prokofiev Fifth are cases in point)at the same time he was all metling charm with the Vienna Phil. Who knows why? But his Mozart symphonies from Vienna are almost lilting, a quality one doesn't associate with this Szell protoge. His Tchaikovsky ballet suites are magnificent in every way, and so are the excrepts from The Bartered Bride on this CD.The orchestra is so ravishing, and the recording captures them so well, that Levine would only need to be half as good. Yet great conductors can outshine themselves, and here he displays joy and brio throughout. The excerpts from Ma vlast are distinctly cooler, no match for Karajan's grand sweep, until the third one, which is rich and dramatic. So call this CD a treasure for at least half the music on it and very good for the rest.
