So I have been trying to figure out what is the proper tempo for the introduction to the first movement of the 27th Symphony. It's apparently marked Lento, but the three recordings I've heard of it seem to have drastically different ideas of how slow to play it. Brabbins takes that introduction at a rather jaunty pace, more like an Allegretto (assuming the flute's first two notes are quavers). There's a recording online of a California student orchestra that takes it exceedingly slowly indeed, to my ears way too slowly (but then I heard the work first in the Brabbins). On the other hand, Mackerras's venerable reading takes it at somewhere between Brabbins and the student orchestra, and sounds just right to me.
Has anyone seen the score? Does Brian use metronome markings? (I assume not, otherwise the rather extreme differences between the three performances would be hard to justify.) What does the group think?
