Schmidt 2nd from Berlin/Luisi on Radio 3

[eschiss1]

Not that unknown but worth hearing new performances. BBC Radio 3 in Concert, a few days ago.

[Alan Howe]

But not that well-known either. Thanks very much, Eric. How marvellous to have such rarely heard music played by one of the world's great orchestras.

[Ilja]

I gave Luisi's Schmidt 2nd a listen in the past week, and while I share Alan's joy that major orchestras are picking up this composer, in this case I can't be congratulatory about the results.
Luisi's recording is quite a bit slower than the competition (in my collection, both Neeme and Paavo Järvi's and Erich Leinsdorf with the Vienna Phil) at almost 53 minutes, which wouldn't be a huge issue in itself if it weren't so noticeable - it feels absolutely glacial. Worse still, Luisi keeps orchestral dynamics very close to the middle, so both silent and loud passages don't sound it. This creates an overall sense of mushiness, further reinforced by Luisi's total lack of rhythmic sensibility.
This isn't just bad, it's I'm-actively-deleting-this-from-my-collection bad. Schmidt's 2nd is an exciting, rhythmically complex yet intensely lyrical piece, and if you make two of those three disappear, and aren't very good at the third, you've not done a good job. Get Paavo's Järvi's recording instead, which is phenomenal.

[Alan Howe]

What a shame. Bychkov (with the VPO on Sony) comes in at 48:13, so Luisi would seem to have indulged himself rather too much.

[Ilja]

I wouldn't mind a more relaxed approach per se, but it just feels so slow, particularly in the finale. Bychkov is not the quickest (Järvi père takes c. 47 minutes, fils 45 and a half, and Leinsdorf is around Bychkov's mark) but it's still a very fine (and very well-played) reading from what I remember.

Still, the slow tempos aren't the main issue (and tastes differ, so some may actually prefer them). However, the excruciating dynamic flatness is - and that's not down to the engineering (which doesn't help, by the way) but very much to the conductor. It's almost as though he's attempting to turn it into some perverse Karajan-esque pastiche.

[Alan Howe]

A great orchestra is no guarantee of a great (or even good) performance if the conductor's conception is somewhat perverse.

[mbhaub]

One conductor who did have a great conception of the 2nd was Dmitri Mitropoulos. It's just a shame that the Vienna Phil wasn't up to the challenge then and that the recorded sound is so awful. I listened to the Luisi BPO live and it was indeed relatively uninvolving. I hope his vision of Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln coming up next spring in Dallas is more profound.