SCHUBERT: SYMPHONIES NOS. 3 AND 6. Staatskapelle...

SCHUBERT: SYMPHONIES NOS. 3 AND 6. Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Otmar Suitner. Denon 33CO-1253 (compact disc). Suitner cannily re-creates the sensibility of the Sixth (or “Little C-major”) Symphony, bestowing upon it the massive chording and stately tempos of the Beethoven era. But the Third Symphony (1815), a farewell to the epoch of Haydn, requires a more quicksilver, more spontaneous touch than the East German conductor and orchestra can attain here. Earlier entries in this Schubert series suffered from the hollow acoustic situation of the recording site, East Berlin’s Christuskirche. In the interim, Denon’s engineers have effected some alterations in microphone set-up, but not enough to allow the composer’s playful harmonies in all their glory.