This recording is throwing me for a loop, I'll be honest. It's so fast. Too fast, I think. The first movement comes in at roughly 30:00 minutes! Initially I thought to myself, this is pretty quick. Then I started looking through my other M3 offerings and I can't find anything that's remotely close to this. Kondrashin is almost 3 minutes faster. Inbal gives us the final movement in about 22 minutes. Scherzo in 16 and the remaining movements are closer to the 'normal' timings we encounter in this work.
I would put this recording in the same category as the blazing Jarvi M7 and the glacial Klemp M7. Something of an oddity, worth hearing because it's different, but I would be surprised if anyone would put this recording on their top shelf.
The orchestral playing is, for the most part, really good. Personally the brass was a bit of let down in the first movement. I could of used a lot more in the trombone solo and the horns at the end of the 3rd movement are parts that, I felt, were underpowered.
Sorry this isn't much of a real review, I felt that the overall swiftness of this recording is the biggest thing for or against this interpretation. I would be curious to know if this is, in fact, the fastest M3 on record without cuts.
