Indeed, Nagano conducts a fine M7. Great tam-tam! Anyway, if I did my math right, the timings came out to approximately: I - 22:10; II - 15:10; III - 8:40: IV - 12:15: V - 17:45
Here are his timings from his DSO Berlin performance from a few years ago:
I - 23:04; II - 15:13; III - 9:31 IV - 12:12; V - 17:36
As you can see, they're pretty similar. The third movement scherzo is 50 seconds faster now. And, indeed, it struck me as sounding faster than I had remebered him doing it before. Also, my impression is that he's doing a tad more contrast between fast and slow sections in the outer movements now. Still, the differences weren't huge, and there were many specific similarities.
Nikolaus mentioned that the start of the first movement sounded similar to how it's done on the Horenstein recording. I'm not sure precisely what he meant by that, but in the second full measure, Nagano does the repeated thirty-second notes in the strings as written, and not as a tremelo - which is the way those figures often times get performed (Boulez, of all people!). It was kind of funny that the person covering the tenor horn part (always played on a euphonium or Alexander tenor tuba), cracked their very first note. Oh well! Anyway, unlike MTT/SFSO, Nagano doesn't take the basic allegro tempo at a mad dash. I feel that that pays good dividends, because the accompanying rhythmic figues (always a longer note, followed by two fast notes) don't sound so blurred; not to mention that this is a very rich movement, harmonically speaking.
I want to direct your attention towards the end of the first movement, because this is where I feel that Nagano blows MTT right out of the water. At 19:55, notice that Nagano doesn't take this passage real fast, with it's dense polyphony and rhythmic figues on the tambourine. In fact, he's just a notch slower than most people are at this juncture. At 20:05, the horns and snare drum play sort of a teletype rhythm. Again, this sounds better - cleaner - if it's not played too quickly. Then, at 20:50, Nagano does a HUGE ritard at the spot with - what might best be described as - the funereal dirge rhythm in the bass drum and low brass, accompanied by the horns playing the main theme in their low register. Here was the spot that MTT could have done one of his patened, huge slow-downs; but he didn't do it - almost as though he were saying: "Aha! - I bet you thought that I was going to slow down there! Well, you're wrong!". Whatever, MTT. Anway, the point is, Nagano does these last few minutes really well.
Bruno,
I want to accentuate the positive, by thanking you again for posting this. This was a very positive and useful contribution.
