MASUR, TILSON THOMAS AND THE LEIPZIG CONNECTION

There has been notable anticipation in those American cities where East German conductor Kurt Masur has become a familiar and respected presence--Boston, New York and San Francisco among them--of his set of the nine Beethoven symphonies with his own Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Masur is the latest in a line of Leipzig music directors that includes such legendary conductors as Felix Mendelssohn (the same), Niels Gade, Artur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwaengler and Hermann Abendroth.

Whether Masur belongs in such company is idle speculation. What is apparent in his Beethoven nine (Philips 416 274, six records, LP and CD), just released for the first time in this country, is that he is a conductor of the “monumental” school, a big-picture sort of interpreter rather than a detail man. His Beethoven symphonies, whether early, middle or late, move with with an unhurried gait, but forcefully, with rhythmic backbone.

This is grandly scaled Beethoven, played by a top-notch ensemble whose plump, well-balanced sound (its wind soloists are unfashionably enamored of vibrato), in combination with Masur’s strong, unfussy leadership, makes this set an adornment to the catalogue rather than just another go-round with the same old thing.

Whereas Masur represents tradition, Christopher Hogwood and his period-instrument Academy of Ancient Music represent “truth,” or at least “historical accuracy” in their original small-orchestra editions of Beethoven’s First and Second symphonies (London/L’Oiseau-Lyre 414 338, LP and CD).

It’s a bland kind of truth, however, with Hogwood content to wind his players up--very tightly--then let them run in rhythmically stiff, dynamically under-varied performances with ill-balanced climaxes in the outer movements, in which the winds swamp the strings.

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the English Chamber Orchestra in versions of the First and Second symphonies that also hew to Beethoven’s original editions but employ modern instruments (CBS 39707, LP). The results are nothing like those obtained by Hogwood. Tilson Thomas makes use of a varied dynamic scheme rather than merely alternating soft and loud; phrasing is liquid rather than hacked-out, and balances are on the mark.

Mendelssohn, who conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts from 1835 to 1843, is represented among recent releases by his collected symphonies for full orchestra, of which there are five. One of them, No. 4 (“Italian”) stands near the heart of the repertory; the Third (“Scottish”) and Fifth (“Reformation”) are occasionally heard in concert; Nos. 1 and 2 (“Song of Praise”) are rarities.

Conductor Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony make a convincing case for the desirability of more frequent encounters with Mendelssohn in the concert hall with their polished and probing interpretations of the five (Deutsche Grammophon 415 353, four records, LP and CD).

Nothing short of drastic recomposition could bring to life the pomposities and pieties of the lengthy Second Symphony. But the First, with its nods in the directions of both Beethoven and Schubert, is a charming work and Abbado treats it with affection, breadth and intensity; and the more familiar symphonies are hardly taken for granted by the conductor, who produces some of the most vital and shapely recorded interpretations of these works within memory.

Beside Abbado’s spacious, penetrating readings, those of the “Scottish” and “Italian” symphonies by the Chicago Symphony under Georg Solti (London 414 665, LP or CD) sound overdriven and superficial. The Chicagoans play superbly, after a fashion--a generally loud, unsubtle fashion.

The Leipzig connection continues with the four symphonies of Robert Schumann, who was born nearby and whose career was bound up with the musical life of that city. Three of his four symphonies were given their premiere performances by the Gewandhaus Orchestra, with Mendelssohn conducting the First (“Spring”).

Schumann is handsomely treated by two notable--and notably dissimilar--exponents of his music. Bernard Haitink conducts the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra in all four symphonies (Philips 416 126, three LPs, two CDs). Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic couple the First and Fourth (Deutsche Grammophon 415 274, LP and CD) and the Third (“Rhenish”) with the Piano Concerto (Deutsche Grammophon 415 358, LP and CD). The Second Symphony is scheduled for release later in the year.

Haitink’s readings might be labeled Classical for their textural clarity and trim rhythmicality, while Bernstein’s are decidedly Romantic in their lush sonority and elasticity of rhythm and tempo. Two contrasting, equally valid and satisfying approaches to the music, both superbly executed and recorded.

Schumann’s Piano Concerto, in which the soloist is Justus Frantz, finds Bernstein mooning about an awful lot, adjusting tempos seemingly at will (and at whim), leaving his pianist to play a game of follow-if you-can the erratic leader.