It's hard to find anything positive to say about
Marin Alsop and the
London Philharmonic's Naxos recordings of Brahms' Third Symphony and Haydn Variations. In the symphony,
Alsop's unconvincing tempo changes and listless sense of rhythm dissipate the dramatic energy of the outer movements, while her muddy textures and dreary colors diffuse the lyrical repose of the central movements. In the variations,
Alsop's superficial performance submerges the music's details, her single-minded interpretation misjudges the music's depths, her wayward tempos dissolve the music's drive. The
London Philharmonic plays throughout like it's bored by yet another coupling of Brahms' Third and Haydn Variations: the ensemble is slack, the strings are scrappy, the winds are wobbly, and the brass is flat-out sloppy. Naxos' sound is at once too big -- part of the responsibility for the muddy textures is surely the producer's -- and too shallow -- the
LPO somehow sounds like a much smaller orchestra. There are dozens of better performances of either work available from the defiantly heroic yet sweetly soulful 1936
Bruno Walter/
Vienna Philharmonic recording to the clear-eyed and strong-hearted 1990
Claudio Abbado/
Berlin Philharmonic recording. This one may be of interest only to those listeners who avidly follow
Alsop's career.