Very good execution, but Levine's ideas feel too ordinary
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/18/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I'm not dogging David Hurwitz to negate his opinions, but to my ears these 1989 recordings of Mozart's Sym. 40 and 41 sound a bit like run thorughs--very talented run throughs, naturally. DG's sound is constricted compared to what RCA gave Levine when he first recorded this pairing with a vigorous, alert Chicago Sym. who, believe it or not, outplay the Vienna Phil. The only drawback to RCA's big, open sound is some shrillness in the strings that could be eliminated with a new remastering. In any event, Levine gives the same lean, fast readings on both CDs, though a bit more affectionately on RCA. And since the timings are mostly identical (a bit slower on DG) I don't get what Hurwitz means by saying that Levine takes more repeats here. Oh well."