Jane Marsh, soprano; Eunice Alberts, contralto; Richard Cassily, tenor; Thomas Paul, bass; Harvard Glee Club, Radcliffe Choral Society, New England Conservatory Chorus. Erich Leinsdorf, conductor (VAI DVD)
After excellent discs devoted to concerts by BSO music director Charles Munch and guest conductors John Barbirolli and Pierre Monteux, the engaging VAI series has come to Munch’s successor, Erich Leinsdorf, who served for seven of the more fascinating years of the orchestra’s history (1962-69). Leinsdorf was a brilliant program-maker who introduced many new scores but sometimes was found wanting in standard repertory, which could be cold, hard and driven. The masterworks assembled here–one complete concert from 1965 and an excerpt from another–show the upside: aerated textures and an emotional engagement, noble, fiery and tender, that often was missing from Leinsdorf’s Boston recordings. Nothing is exaggerated, the scores unfold with unsentimental grace and the beauty of the playing is conveyed by clear monaural sound. Leinsdorf’s communication, through the eyes as well as a precise stick technique, is vividly caught on black-and-white tape that shows its age through dropouts and glitches, but still proves a winning document.