Drawn from the finest young players in Hungary the Budapest Festival
Orchestra is conducted here by Iván Fischer its co-founder and music
director. Fischer and his Budapest players have already released Mahler 1,
2, 4, 5 and 6 on Channel Classics with 3 and 7 programmed for the 2015/16
concert series.
It is not surprising that the spectre of Beethoven and of other composers
dying after composing their Ninth Symphony lay heavily on Mahler who had
been diagnosed with a heart condition. He attempted to cheat fate by stating
that this D major Symphony was not the ninth to be written as
Das Lied
von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) from 1907/08 was actually his
ninth.
In the summer of 1909 Mahler began preparing sketches for his Symphony No.
9 at the Villa Alt-Schluderbach in Toblac, South Tyrol. The score was
completed in New York in the spring of 1910 and Mahler died a few months
later in May 1911. The work was premièred posthumously under Bruno Walter
and the Wiener Philharmoniker in June 1912.
It is an intriguing and greatly rewarding score, a work of farewell
steeped in introspection; maybe the composer’s personal requiem. Iván
Fischer sees the symphony as “a most complex, extremely forward looking,
visionary symphony”.
In November/December 2013 Fischer took the Budapest Festival Orchestra
into the Palace of Arts, Budapest to record Mahler 9 under studio conditions
for Channel Classics. With unerring confidence Fischer quickly generates a
powerful intensity in the opening movement. This contrasts with writing of
idyllic bucolic contentment. The music feels highly picturesque - to me
evoking a mysterious forested landscape with a magnificent waterfall. In the
bitter-sweet second movement
Scherzo once again extremes prevail.
On the surface things are unified by the near unremitting dance rhythms of
two different pairs of waltzes and
ländler. Then a sardonic edge in
the music becomes increasingly frantic and contorted before fading into the
distance. The varying sound-world of the
Rondo-Burleske is a
swirling mix of urgency, anxiety, seriousness, occasional triviality and a
glimpse of normality among all the mayhem. Marked
Adagio, the
Finale eschews disdain and mockery instead speaking through
heavenly music of considerable generosity. As the playing gathers in burning
intensity there is a undercurrent of deep reflection. Control of pace and
tension is masterly and the searing Budapest strings provide an intense
blanket of sublime sound. In Fischer’s expert hands the final page with
muted strings could easily be a depiction of the stage in life between
actual death and ascension into heaven.
I have whittled down to four the competing accounts of Mahler 9 that I
find especially satisfying. The most consistently rewarding and my first
choice is conducted by Sir John Barbirolli and the Berliner Philharmoniker
recorded in 1964 under studio conditions in the marvellous acoustic of the
Jesus Christ Church, Dahlem, Berlin on EMI Classics. This has all the
atmosphere and spontaneity of a live recording. Barbirolli was the first
British conductor to make a recording with the Berliner Philharmoniker since
Sir Thomas Beecham back in 1937. This was a time when the Berliner
Philharmoniker rarely performed Mahler symphonies and Barbirolli was in
effect helping the orchestra to rediscover the composer. In 1979 Leonard
Bernstein conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker for his first and only time.
As Mahler was a composer close to Bernstein’s heart he selected Mahler 9. As
a change from the more usual two rehearsals Bernstein was actually given
four sessions. His live performance pulsates with intensity, although the
playing isn’t always perfect. It was recorded at the Philharmonie, Berlin
for Deutsche Grammophon. An account that continues to grow on me is from the
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Rafael Kubelik then the
orchestra’s chief conductor. Recorded live on tour in 1975 in Tokyo, Japan.
It is on Audite. Kubelik exercises splendid control over the overall shape
of the score and one senses a real empathy with the composer - a fellow
Bohemian. A more recent recording worthy of admiration is the version from
Bernard Haitink conducting the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Haitink provides a compelling and deeply perceptive live account recorded in
2011 in the impressive acoustic of the Herkulessaal, Munich. This adds to
the merit of this BR Klassik release.
The Budapest Festival Orchestra was recorded at the Palace of Arts,
Budapest. The sound team for Channel Classics has provided clear textures,
realistic presence and impressive balance. A dedicated Mahlerian, Fischer
directs a well-shaped yet penetrating reading. It joins the echelons of the
finest recordings.
Michael Cookson
