Mellow, pretty and oh-so-boring Stravinsky

I was expecting some youthful, energetic freshness from this youthful, fresh conductor. But alas, this lulled me right off to sleep.

There is seriously something wrong when a conductor sets out to make Stravinsky "pretty". This is mellow and prettified Stravinsky. And MDG exacerbates the problem with laid-back, low-impact sound. Even after cranking the volume up, I still could not achieve any impact or full-bodied involvement out of these readings.

The orchestra plays beautifully, sounding lovely, disinterested and relaxed into lazy humdrum. Smooth, vague articulation results in a complete absence of anything one could call "incisive". Tempos are generally good, although the opening movement of the Concerto in D, marked Vivace, is too slow and sleepy.

It's interesting to note, however, that this MDG disc is an all-inclusive, multi-format hybrid which offers not only CD and SACD (in stereo and 5.1 multi-channel), but also DVD-A (but curiously in stereo only). I listened only to the stereo SACD layer. I simply lost all interest in exploring this recording further after snoozing through it the first time.

I am mystified at this approach and wonder why any conductor would want to conceive Stravinsky being played this way. It is just simply boring.