From: GQ.JNK@forsythe.stanford.edu (John Klemm 3-4420)
Subject: Re: Jascha Horenstein (Was Re: Mahler 9 (was Re: Mahler 1))
Organization: Stanford University
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 06:30:03 GMT

In article <1992Oct5.184446.5290@spang.Camosun.BC.CA>,
dbarker@spang.Camosun.BC.CA (Deryk Barker) writes:
>The Descant Horenstein Edition, probably still available from
>Berkshire, also included a Mahler 7 (single CD) with the NPO from the
>Royal Festival Hall in 1969, and a Bruckner 5 (single CD) with the BBC
>SO from the 1971 proms - his first appearance after a heart attack
>earlier that year.
>
>The Mahler 7 is, IMO, the finest I've heard, and the Bruckner 5 ranks
>up there with the 1942 and 1951 Furtwaenglers.
>
>I agree that much Horenstein was recorded with second-rate orchestra
>and less than terrific sonics, but he was one of this century's
>*greatest* conductors, much underrated.

IMO, the Mahler 7th is far from special -- perhaps because, like so
many other Horenstein recordings, its merits seem overblown and its
demerits are rarely mentioned in criticism, nor treated as if they
would be significant to any serious listener.

In this specific case, you do have sonic problems -- airplane-hangar
sonics, as my partner mentioned when I played it -- and that alone
would rule it out as a "best choice" in my opinion.  It is a live
concert recording, so you get the usual audience coughs and rustles.
The orchestra has some notable flubs, including the first note out
of the euphonium solo that opens the work.

The orchestra responds awkwardly to some ritards at the start of the
recapitulation (which themselves sound awkwardly led by the
conductor, in my opinion, as do other tempo changes in other
movements).  You might also be surprised in the first movement, as I
was, by the DROP in intensity in the crescendo into the final Tempo
I marking of the coda, 25 bars from the end of the first movement, a
very disappointing interpretive problem at a climactic moment in the
movement.  In general, what I hear is a fair but not great
performance, not the stuff any of my dreams are made of.  (That's
important for the Nachtmusik sections, perhaps!  :-) ) Maybe a
studio recording would have been better; maybe a better orchestra...
maybe more rehearsal time...  but this is what we've got.

I know Horenstein's work captures the imagination of a great many
people whose views I respect.  But he has not seemed particularly
more insightful to me than most other conductors, and for Mahler's
7th in particular, his work is strongly eclipsed by Bernstein's CBS
recording, next to which Horenstein's seems characterless.  The
Horenstein recording's sonic and orchestral problems (conducting
aside, for the moment) make it second-rank, and certainly not a
first choice for general recommendation.  If someone can comment on
what makes the conductor's interpretation outweigh these other
problems for them, that would be very interesting to me.  How do you
get beyond them?

I feel I have been burned by purchases of Horenstein performances,
where the conductor's talents (which are not electrifying, at least
not from what I hear in the Mahler 7th) have not overcome these
other problems enough to give me a satisfying musical experience.

John Klemm, Stanford University
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical