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Gustav MAHLER
Symphony No.9
Songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn"*

Brigitte Fassbaender (Mezzo-soprano)*
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone)*
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken
Conducted by Hans Zender [117:53]
CPO 999 479-2  [117:53]
Crotchet  £12.50  Amazon UK   £7.99 Amazon USA $6.97

More Mahler from the Saarbrücken Radio archives conducted by Hans Zender. The Ninth is from February 1977 and, like his Seventh reviewed last month, places him among conductors who see Mahler as a composer looking forward into the 20th century in a less emotionally charged, more dramatically cogent approach than we are often used to. Tempi faster, contrapuntal lines sharper, lyricism underplayed. In all a valuable antidote to those conductors who see Mahler as their personal psychiatric couches but an approach that can, if overplayed, rob us of a level of involvement in music that is essentially expressive of the human condition. In the end, that is what happens here.

The first movement promises well and is full of interest. Zender establishes a firm Andante and this renders much of the music quite restless and edgy. Not the lugubrious crawl it can sometimes degenerate into under more indulgent batons. I also enjoyed the closer-balanced woodwinds in this recording, especially noticeable in 80-107. In the Development Zender's attention to detail carries much of the argument and note the care with which the timpani mark out one of the movement's important rhythmic figures. Then at 148-210 hear how the tempo picks up marking again Zender's unwillingness to linger. The main, fateful climax is crowned by really deep-toned trombones blazing out the "fate motif" and this is followed by a very strict funeral procession passage which itself leads to a hedonistic delivery of the main Recapitulation material. Even in the nostalgic "dying fall" coda Zender's sharpness of focus remains, though even he relaxes just enough for it to matter.

After a very rewarding performance of the first movement I don't think those of the other three quite live up to it. In the second movement Zender is some way from appreciating Mahler's careful dilineation of tempi, as if he's trying to force a unity that isn't there. I also think the Tempo I Landler needs more trenchancy even though it's very well played. The Tempo II Waltz, on the other hand, is splendid but doesn't mark enough of a break from the Landler. What I did admire was Zender's ear for the detail of the scoring aided by a fine balance from the engineers. In the third movement "Rondo Burleske" there's a case to be made for the more deliberate approach, most famously brought off by Klemperer on EMI. Mostly, however, there needs to be a sense of wildness and abandon somewhere for the frantic energy Mahler unleashes to really have an effect. Impressive though Zender is in his held-back tempo, especially in terms of clarity, I miss the sense of life and death struggle, of a world going smash, that you get with Walter, Bernstein and Horenstein, to name three. But it's in the heavenly interlude two thirds of the way through the movement that my earlier point regarding how this essentially expressive music can be robbed of a level of involvement by too much detachment really tells. Zender seems as if he doesn't quite know what to do with this passage and the same applies to his performance of the last movement that the interlude itself essentially predicts. At 19:48 for the last movement Zender is almost as fast as Walter is in his "live" 1938 recording in Vienna on EMI or Dutton. The difference between them is that Walter somehow conveys that world of feeling that is so important with vintage playing and an innate grasp of the music's emotional core. Zender has his own agenda, delivers it but leaves me wanting a lot more, even though what he has given us is refreshing.

The radicalism of the Seventh Symphony suited Hans Zender down to the ground and his stressing of it served only to illuminate that work. The Ninth Symphony has its radical elements too but there is, crucially, a greater degree of potent nostalgia in it that the more radical approach can miss, as it does here.

The Wunderhorn songs come from 1979 and contain a partnership of Brigitte Fassbaender and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau that has to be a recommendation in itself. Fischer-Dieskau famously recorded these songs with Georg Szell conducting on EMI. On that occasion his partner was Elisabeth Schwarzkopf whose rather mannered contribution is not to all tastes. No such problem with Fassbaender, so this release is especially valuable in that it's the only chance we have to hear this incomparable artist in these songs. It's also good to see this performance correctly assigns one singer to each song since most recordings make the "dialogue" songs duets which was a practice Mahler never sanctioned. One song usually included in performances, "Verlor'ne Muh", is missing.

Fischer-Dieskau gives a stunning performance of "Revelge", full of a character and experience. Likewise in "Der Tambourg'sell" he's the complete Mahlerian in covering every aspect of these bittersweet poems. Note in this latter song the pungent muted brass and bitter woodwind accompaniments from Zender and the orchestra, models of poise and character right through though not, I think, the equals of Szell's LSO or Prohaska's Vienna Symphony on Vanguard. Fassbaender is the antidote to singers like Janet Baker for Wyn Morris. In fact she's very much the counterpart to Fischer-Dieskau in pointing up the words clearly and with total understanding. In "Lob des hohen Verstandes" she shows a nice line in humour, far more naturally than Schwarzkopf. Then in "Wo die schonen Trompeten blasen", sung by Fassbaender alone, the depth she brings stays long in the mind.

A unique coupling which makes a persuasive purchase. However the symphony is the weak link in being in the end just too emotionally detached. But the vocal partnership for the Wunderhorn songs is absorbing and rewarding along with Zender's fine accompaniment of it.

Reviewer

Tony Duggan

Performances:

Symphony:

Songs:

Recordings:

See also Tony Duggan's comparative review of Mahler recordings



Reviewer

Tony Duggan

Performances:

Symphony:

Songs:

Recordings:


Reviews from previous months


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