20th Century Classics: Leos Janácek

Leading the Philharmonia in a 1983 recording of Janacek's Sinfonietta and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a 1981 recording of the Glagolitic Mass, Simon Rattle goes all out for the big points while missing many details. In both works, the opening and closing movements are head-splitting in their non-stop aural assault, but the soulful inner movements sound more like interludes between bombastic episodes than statements unto themselves. Fortunately, the 2001 recording of The Diary of One Who Disappeared with plangent tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist-composer Thomas Ad?s is much more detailed, and no less passionate. Three of the additional performances -- the Violin Sonata and the Concertino and Capriccio for pianist and small orchestra -- are equally effective in the hands of pianist Mikhail Rudy and violinist Pierre Amoyal with seasoned Jan?cek conductor Charles Mackerras leading soloist from the Op?ra National de Paris, while the six tiny piano pieces receive wholly characteristic performed by Ad?s. Whether the Jan?cek enthusiast will find it necessary to slog through Rattle's uneven readings of the Sinfonietta and the Mass to get to the other performances remains to be seen. James Leonard, All Music Guide