2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK, If You Like This Sort of Thing, May 27, 2008
This review is from: Schumann: Symphonies 3 & 4 (Audio CD)
Norrington and his original instruments ensemble the London Classical Players were all the rage when this was originally released roughly twenty years ago. What they did for/to Beethoven was presumably also good for Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Berlioz. The tempos here, however, are not that extreme, hewing fairly close to what's often heard in more Classically rendered performances of the Schumann symphonies. The orchestra plays elegantly with nary a purposely blatty horn perforating the proceedings (nor one's ear drums). Norrington doesn't manage to clarify the thick orchestration to an appreciable extent as certain passages do sound muddy, though this could be a result of a certain inexactness in ensemble. Otherwise, these are fairly enjoyable, though nondescript and unexpressive readings of works whose "period charms" are perhaps better exemplified elsewhere. I've yet to hear John Eliot Gardiner's period instrument renditions, nor Norrington's more recent modern instrument renditions from Stuttgart.
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