Vonk’s reading of Brahms’s
glorious 2nd Symphony is
lean and almost classical in feel. Although
generally well-played by the Dutch radio
orchestra, occasionally it seems a bit
underpowered. The first movement suffers
most and comes across as too leisurely
for my taste. With the exposition repeat
included, it has almost Brucknerian
proportions and lasts for almost 21
minutes. Comparisons with Haitink’s
recent live recording with the LSO ( LSO0043)
are not favourable to Vonk. The sound
quality on both these discs is excellent
but Haitink’s performance has more interesting
phrasing and greater contrasts. Accounting
for the missing exposition repeat (which
I am not sure is essential in this work),
the timings of the first movement are
quite similar but Haitink’s rendition
doesn’t seem slow. I enjoyed Vonk’s
adagio and honours are about even in
the middle movements. However, in the
last movement Haitink’s performance
catches fire much more convincingly
– perhaps an advantage of live recording.
Nor would I prefer Vonk’s reading to
studio performances conducted by Boult
and Sanderling from the early 1970s.
By the side of either, this newcomer
is rather bland, although the sound
is preferable. In summary, this is a
decent performance of the symphony but
Vonk finds less in the music than others
and is not really distinctive.
The Tragic Overture
is performed in similar vein to the
symphony. Although an apt coupling,
it is hardly generous – Haitink’s disc
has a glowing performance of Brahms’s
Double Concerto. The disc is well-presented
apart from a lack of information about
the performers. This seems to be the
only SACD version of Brahms’s 2nd
Symphony yet available. I have only
heard it on a standard CD player and
cannot comment on the gain from SACD.
In contrast to the open field on SACD,
competition is considerable on CD and
it would be hard to recommend this disc
unless you particularly want to hear
Brahms’s 2nd in the SACD
format.
Patrick C Waller
Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hans
Vonk 
PENTATONE
CLASSICS PTC 5186 042 [59:02] 