The speed of the first two movements of this Haffner gave me an actual blood pressure spike that I didn’t recover from for the rest of the album.

I love how Bruno Walter says, “sing” to the orchestra. He says it with such gentleness.

This may be your sweetest, most encouraging review yet, David! 'That's a good thing! Anyone can accidentally hire studio time!'

When I was little I used to play "air timpani" with the finale of the Haffner, it is such a joy. Sounds perfect for me 😛

I discovered Mozart's 40th by the Camerata Salzburg, no conductor. Just 36 minutes of bliss. One of the reasons why KZfaq these days is preferred by some to purchasing or even playing a CD?

Well put!

That was exactly my reaction when I heard these recordings. I thought the performances were very average, and the orchestra could have played them just as well without him.

That was a good and honest review! Too bad we always have to cope with the all the PR and promotional bullcrap when it comes to these "prodigies". Let's just hope he turns out to be worth the hype.

I hope you can review Vanska's new Mahler 3rd and Michael Francis's new Beethoven Symphonies(Mahler Re-Orchestrations)❤

The fact that your review was neutral, is a good thing. He’s got time to grow. And you didn’t come out hard negative as you did for “Ken.”

I like the use of timpani to energize Mozart. Perhaps the timpani were over done here. I need to find out.

Do you happen to know whether the distinctive way those timpani rolls are done in the finale of the Haffner (sharp attack, then crescendo) are an interpretive decision? I don't remember anyone else who does them that way!

That album cover is slightly embarrassing. It reminds me of Harry Potter with his magic wand. I'm not knocking Tarmo or Harry or wands... just saying. Maybe that's exactly the connection the marketing folks want to make.

I did a quick comparison between the new whiz kid and the old master in the Linz. It always struck me as one of Klemp's (surprisingly) vigorous recordings. Mr Tarmo logs in at 9.55/7.50/3.12/7.00 Yes, I agree with you that it seems fast. But Maestro's recording is 9.54/6.36/3.09/7.19. I agree with you: timings aren't everything. But isn't that a surprise? Klemperer's finale is hair-raising. Just checking in -/ love your videos.

I was curious about Tarmo and listened to a few videos on KZfaq. Based on the limited number of clips that I watched, I think I would prefer the playing style of more intensities and seriousness than Tarmo's

On first hearing of this recording I just wondered why so many, such as Glenn Gould, for example, wished Mozart and Beethoven were Baroque and not 'classical.'

I appreciate the inclusion of piano improvisations in between symphonies. It makes a good break so that we can clean up our ears before listening to the next symphony, and offers an alternative to the too-reverent listening attitude. The only thing is that we, musicians who play from the score, tend to overrate improvisation skills. As though that was the mark of genius. It is not. It is only that our musical education is too segmented and does not encourage self-expression at that level. There are thousands of people who can improvise in classical and pre-classical style in a truly effective way. On the piano I can think of Andre Mehmari, who improvises on themes asked for by the audience, or Gabriela Montero. Various harpsichord and lute players can give a fully improvised concert in the style of Scarlatti or 16th century lute music. It is just another modality of music-making, which I welcome but am not baffled by.

I’m going to his concert with the HK Philharmonic next month with Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto and Mahler’s 5th. Should be interesting.

DG put mvt 1 of the 40th, mvt 2 of Linz and mvt 4 on KZfaq, so I gave a listen. I thought the 40th 1st movement had a lot of nice little details in phrasing and balance, I actually did hear some stuff in a new way. The Linz slow movement I thought was fast but certainly listenable, the orchestra played with real charm. The Haffner finale definitely suffered from the loud timpani, I wonder what the musicological justification for this is, it just seemed distracting. I detected some real creativity in the performances, although certainly no stunning revelations.

He is supposed to be a specialist in Wagner, so it will be interesting to hear what he does with those works.

Any thoughts on Beethoven's relationship with the fuge?

You're right. Very reverberant and very loud timpani. 🤮 I think by now, Harnoncourt and Gardiner are considered "old school." Still, in HIP (non-historical nor informed) recordings, I still prefer them.

Not another one!! Lol

I agree about the timpani prominence. Sometimes it can be exciting, but here its just annoying, and you find yourself waiting for the next time to 'duck for cover'! The sound's not that great generally, lacking in bottom end and resonance.

With all the repertoire out there, it's got to be more Mozart at this late date. Yaaawn. Sure, timeless…it’s been done to death, decades and decades of recordings preserve great performances in the way pre good recorded sound couldn’t (thus the need to keep such music alive in concert halls…a situation which wasn’t necessarily even done in earlier days, thus why so much baroque era music disappeared, up until recent revivals). I’ll pass

He is 22 and his voice sounds like he is 62. I don’t know how good he really is, but he sounds way better than Makela.

I listened to the 40th Symphony, First Movement. Why these period-instrument fanatics always think that the way instruments were constructed in the 17th and 18th Century should also mean that music must be performed with them completely mechanically and drained of any emotional coloring?!

I happened to like these performances, especially because some of the wind parts were more audible than usual. But those piano improvs (in the download) are embarrassing.

Yet another Finnish conductor! I think we need a total and complete shutdown of Finnish conducting until we can figure out what is going on. Seriously, though, why sooooo many Finnish conductors in prominent positions? Are their academies really so prolific?

I just saw the cover of the CD and I thought, oh who lets a baby conduct an orchestra?