Harnoncourt's excitingly uninhibited new set of the Slavonic Dances, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, combines great exuberance and virtuosity with vivid colouring. Harnoncourt's direction has tremendous zest and vitality. The Dumka character of Op. 46/2 is spectacularly caught, moving from a relaxed lyrical charm and warmly flexible phrasing to spontaneously hot-blooded bursts of energy, with the trombones electrifying unleased. The delicacy of the string and woodwind playing in No. 6 of the first set is particularly beguiling, as is the seductive rubato at the opening of Op. 72/2. But even here the relaxation of the shapely phrasing is underpinned by an inherent vitality, with the last two chords given a firm finality. Beautiful music. --Tanis Somerville-Christianssen. Read more.
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