Search - John Barbirolli, Halle Orchestra :: Viennese Night

Loving performances of Strauss chestnuts, but awfully slack

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/20/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I was in a Barbirolli mood when I bought this CD, meaning that I considered his slow tempi and slack rhythms a sign of affection for these familiar Strauss waltzes. Now I wonder. The Halle plays reasonably well, though nowhere up to the standards of the great orchestras that have recorded this music ten times over. The bewt thing here is Lehar's Gold and Silver Waltz, which Barbirolli conducts as if he's making love. The rest, well, it's a nice night of easy listening with a provincial orchestra thirty years ago."