COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: DG
CATALOGUE NO: See text for individual catalogue numbers and BBCMusic Magazine Direct prices
DG also includes the first CD release of Jochum’s excellent Berlin Philharmonic accounts of Symphonies Nos 88 and 91, plus an earlier, more transparent No. 98 with the Bavarian RSO.
Compared to Leonard Bernstein’s incandescent and stylishly sound Haydn interpretations, his MOZART was less consistent, as DG recordings of the late symphonies bear out (Trio 474 349-2, £20.99).
The G minor (No. 40) and Jupiter (No. 41) are weighty and grand, sometimes to a fault, while the ‘little’ G minor (No. 25), A major (No. 29), Haffner (No. 35) and E flat major (No. 39) unfold with maximum urgency and minimum fuss.
As usual, the Vienna Philharmonic play like crazy for Bernstein: hear the horns let rip in the finale of the Jupiter, or the galvanic unison runs in that of the Haffner. L