TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : COMPACT DISCS

“Mahler: Symphony No. 1.” Leonard Slatkin conducts the St. Louis Symphony. Telarc (DDD). What a disappointment. The prospects seemed so promising: Mahler’s alternately whispering and crashing symphony brought to the pristine world of the CD--and on such a respected hi-fi label, too. Unfortunately, Slatkin seldom connects with the score’s grand-scaled drama. There is no tension, no release in the first movement, no reckless abandon in the second, no wistful melancholy in the third, no earth-shaking revelations in the finale. The sound is nice, though, and the St. Louis musicians are up to the task, never missing a beat. Slatkin, alas, misses the boat.