In all seriousness though, I just went back and re-listened to this recording, and I stand by my review. It’s not as out of tune as I remember it being, then again, I used to listen to various recordings of the piece every night before bed for about a year or two… so at the time, I had it in my ears pretty well. In any case, there are still issues, for instance, the second to last chord of the climax (6:44) is quite out of tune. And while the rubato’s great, sometimes it gets in the way of the ensemble playing together. Right after the climax, for instance, going into the second chord (7:07) the lower sections arrive before the first violins. It makes a pretty sound, just not one that Barber wrote.

These are just examples. These types of things happen frequently and throughout. Now, I love Bernstein’s conducting (he was, after all, arguably the most important conductor of the 20th century), and like I said, some of the tracks on the CD are fantastic, just not that one.

And for certain, the NY Phil does not always play perfectly in tune (or even all the right notes from time to time). I’ve heard it from both sides of the baton ;-)