What results, in one listener's limited experience, is a style of performance that works well at home, in a festival atmosphere awash in community spirit, less well on the road.
The words "Take time" scribbled over a measure are no more indicative of how a passage should be played than the printed score itself, which is, after all, just a blueprint for a performance that must be worked out in direct consultation during rehearsals.
The Seventh was one of the first issues in Pierre Boulez's ongoing Mahler series (Detusche Grammophon), and this is a performance that, predictably, relishes the work's foreshadowing of modernism, while seeming more impatient with the backward glances.
It's not only the "best Bond ever" according to pretty much everyone, but apparently Javier Bardem gives a performance that ranks alongside his work in "No Country For Old Men" and Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight".
Mari Kodama, the pianist, brought a quality of brilliance to the work in a performance that was well defined and spirited, if not impeccable.
The pianist Beth Levin, who played the "Diabelli" Variations at Bargemusic on Friday night, emphasized the radical contrasts in Beethoven's work during a performance that was consistently fascinating and sometimes jarring.
Rodney Sheley is the self-absorbed doctor he visits, Ms. Rumbaugh is again excellent as the office assistant, and Mr. Fehr makes it all work with a performance that mixes humor and pain.
If you love this work, you may have found yourself searching for fresh insights even in spite of the interpretive problems, but in the end you had to take this performance for what it was: a spectacular work in a performance that went off the rails.
But it is the supporting performances that work best.
And when I reviewed Chekhov productions, my formula became singling out one or two performances that worked for me, but usually didn't jibe with any of the others.
