. . . and it turned out to be from a somewhat recent performance with MTT (Tilson-Thomas) and the San Francisco Symphony. The playing was OK (good tuba), but the horns sounded too distant. That was most likely just a problem with seating and microphone placement. I also don't find the S.F. string section to be all that great either; they're certainly nothing to write home about. But the conducting was just incredibly indulgent - self indulgent.
Not only were there lots of bizarre tempo relationships (from one section to the next), but there also a copious amount of gratuitous slow-downs (ritardandos). In addition, MTT changed the dynamics in the brass to whatever he wanted them to be in certain places. In short, he was re-writing the work in spots. I also detected some extra cymbal crashes that added nothing overall. In the end, this turned out to be a somewhat slow and heavy performance, if also excessively detailed in the wrong ways. I seriously thought this might have been a youth orchestra performance. Seriously.
If Tilson-Thomas is on any kind of medications these days, they're clearly not working.
Topic: I heard an awful M5 on local radio, and . . . (Read 6279 times)