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Title: mediocre
Review: I have 20 versions of The Planets. This is down towards the bottom of the pile.The detail is not very good, nor is the sound quality.Mars, one of the more difficult pieces to pull off, conveying menace and vigor, is simply rushed, and not at all convincing. The sound is not well balanced, and the horns are blaring.But neither are the other characters drawn properly. Saturn is a mostly a dirge that rouses to life a few times. Uranus, the Magician, should have some mystery with its power. Steingberg conducts Uranus like it's a musical hammerhead shark. Neptune is more twiddling than mystical delicacy.The whole symphony sounds like the conductor was just going through the paces, without thinking of what the symphony was about.Recommended: Boult, Ormandy, Karajan, Mehta, Dutoit, Maazel, Bernstein, each satisfying in their own way.
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