MAHLER:
Symphony No.3
Mignon Dunn (Mezzo soprano),
Columbia/Barnard Chorus, Riverside Women's Choir, Manhattan School of Music
Children's Chorus, Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Conducted by Glen Cortese (Live performance)
Titanic Records Ti-252
(Two CDs)
MAHLER:
Symphony No.6
Manhattan School of Music
Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Glen Cortese (Live performance)
Titanic Records Ti-257
(One CD)
http://www.titanicrecords.com/
Mahler 6
Amazon
USA
The Manhattan School of Music in New York was founded in 1918 and has an
undergraduate and postgraduate student body of over 850 students from around
40 countries. It also provides support for a larger body of school students
in the New York area between the ages of 3 and 18. It estimates more than
10,000 alumni active in American musical life and if the expertise of its
student symphony orchestra, as represented on these two recordings, is anything
to go by the school has an important place in American musical life. Since
1987 the conductor of the orchestra has been Glen Cortese who has made a
speciality of performing Mahler symphonies in The Riverside Church in New
York and Titanic Records are now recording these performances.
The sound recording on these two issues is in the hands of the veteran engineer
and producer Jerry Bruck, a notable Mahler scholar in his own right and the
last survivor of the trio who visited Alma Mahler to persuade her to lift
her ban on performances of Cooke's performing version of the Tenth. Bruck's
philosophy is to use as simple a microphone arrangement as possible so that
balancing the orchestra remains in the hands of the conductor. This means
careful placing of microphones which, in the case of the Sixth Symphony,
means just one to pick up everything in the way many of the earliest stereo
recordings were made. The results are impressive even though a church acoustic
is not what I think this symphony needs. The reverberation around the orchestra,
though not massive, has the effect of blunting some of Mahler's sharper writing.
What you hear in both the Third and the Sixth is a naturally balanced orchestra
where the placing of the various sections really does allow you to hear
everything in context.
It's impossible not to compare these two recordings with those by professional
orchestras since they must compete with them in the market place. In terms
of corporate elan and power the Manhattan students are short of illustrious
professional colleagues. But that's not to say their playing is all that
inferior to some well-known bands and that these recordings cannot be enjoyed
on their own terms. The playing is almost invariably accurate, the ensemble
impressive and there's much to be said for the level of sheer commitment
these excellent young players have. In terms if alertness and willingness
to follow their conductor into the jaws of hell, they have much that would
teach a lesson to a few professional ensembles. So consider these recordings
seriously and try to sample them if you can before you buy.
The Sixth is the more collectable of the two. Coming on one CD it also offers
good value. However, be aware this necessitates cutting the Exposition repeat
in the first movement. Apart from that, this movement establishes Cortese
as an interpreter who believes in the classical strength of the work, sticking
to a broadly modular set of tempo with few deviations for effect. The opening
is determined with forward momentum and a very "in tempo" delivery of the
short chorale-like passage prior to the second subject, the portrait in music
of Mahler's wife. In the Development the march assumes a gait full of character
but never detracts from the overall structure. Essential if we're to appreciate
that what is being enacted in front of us is Tragedy rather than Melodrama.
A more experienced orchestra would have delivered more character and more
weight but there's no denying that what we have here pretty well hits the
spot.
This is a performance of the work where the Andante rather than the Scherzo
is played as the second movement. In the Critical Edition of the work, and
therefore in the majority of performances, it's the Scherzo that is the second
movement and Mahler did originally conceive the work like that. But he changed
his mind before the first performance and reversed the order of the two inner
movements to produce Andante followed by Scherzo. In his excellent and detailed
liner notes Jerry Bruck offers a feisty case for maintaining Mahler's revised
wishes by bringing forward the evidence that Mahler never in his lifetime
returned to his first thoughts for performances he gave himself or gave his
blessing to. In 1963 Erwin Ratz, the editor of the Critical Edition, claimed
that he did and this is, as I have said, the view accepted my most conductors
today. For myself, I remain convinced Ratz's critical edition is the way
the symphony should be ordered: Scherzo second and Andante third. Bruck's
evidence for Mahler's own performing practice is certainly compelling and
important but the categorical conclusion this leads him to make is another
matter.
Cortese admirably sees the Andante in one "breath" and that's a notable
achievement. There are some nice touches from the orchestra also, notably
some delicate string trills across cowbells in the central section that are
nicely caught and "sifted" into the mix. The major climax of the movement
strides out with no artifice and no "pushing" from the conductor. The orchestra
doesn't, it must be said, thrust this home in the way the players of Vienna
or Amsterdam would, but they do well. I admire the way Cortese, both here
and elsewhere, knows when to hold back too. There are too many Mahler conductors
who shoot off all their arrows at once leaving themselves with empty quivers
at later points.
The Scherzo seems an excellent "reply" to the first movement so, of course,
only proves even more that it is the true second movement and should be placed
there as Mahler first conceived it. There is the requisite weight and forward
drive we found in the first movement and notice too the xylophone crackling
away. Cortese is also aware of the need for the metrical changes in the
"Altvaterisch" trio sections not to be forced. If you ever want to hear how
these should not be done, listen to Klaus Tennstedt's first recording.
The opening flourish of the last movement is duly bleak and full of foreboding.
Again, the orchestra doesn't quite have the full resources to produce the
necessary variations in colour that come from more experienced colleagues,
but they still give everything they do have from here on. At many points
in the movement you're aware Cortese has studied his score carefully. At
49-64, for example, the marking "Heavy" is taken at its word. Then at 98-113
a real Allegro is injected, bringing an urgent charge to proceedings. There
are similar points observed and I think this movement confirms Cortese
temperamentally well-suited to this work having understood this is Tragedy
that needs the framing that a more classical structure gives it. In the passages
around the hammer blows I was aware of the Hero "in full leaf and flower"
prior to being brought down. Though the first hammer blow suffers from either
the reverberation of the church or from the fact that two percussionists
were out of sync since there are definitely two blows in very quick succession
and that's a blot on the performance. The second blow is covered by a tam-tam
and so doesn't appear to have then same problem.
The Third symphony from the year before is less successful. For one thing
the orchestra doesn't play as well. For another I think Cortese is crucially
unprepared for the special rigours of the first movement and his orchestra
then falls short of those demands he makes of them. He chooses to go for
a large-scale view that can be valid but needs an orchestra of the very highest
quality to bring off. Here it only succeeds in exposing their shortcomings
so what emerges sounds like a run-through rather than a performance. There
are also too many passages where attention seems to lapse. The big march
of summer is too sluggish and this has a lot to do with Cortese's general
inability to suggest the hallucinatory quality of this extraordinary movement
across its huge span. For the march to work it must have power and colour,
must be raucous and rude, and here it's too anonymous. The big climax at
347-368 needs more muscle as well and the orchestra, here and elsewhere,
are hindered rather by the large acoustic that blunts the horn section's
crucial contributions. Things improve from the second movement onwards but
a Mahler Third where the thirty-five minute first movement fails, for whatever
reason, is a Mahler Third with one hand tied behind its back.
The second and third movements are beautifully played with the orchestra
sounding more comfortable and able to show some character. The Post Horn
solo in the third movement is beautifully played and recorded too and Cortese's
admirable sense of space works well. He at last also injects some of the
abandonment in the animated sections that we could have done with in the
first movement. The passage towards the end of the movement where Nature
rears up is quite well done but Cortese then rushes the coda where ensemble
is sacrificed.
The choruses are light and airy in the fifth movement with some frightfully
polite boys where, I think, "angels with dirty faces" are more appropriate.
Then in the last movement we are treated to the best part of the whole recording.
Cortese daringly goes for a very slow tempo, one of the slowest on record,
and brings it off. It's eloquent and moving, with a splendid sense of line
right through and I enjoyed it.
As I indicated, the Sixth is worth investigating, even though I cannot see
it replacing Levi on Telarc or Szell on Sony as a single disc version of
this work. Neither can it compete with two disc versions from "the usual
suspects" (Rattle, Thomas Sanderling, Barbirolli, to name but three). However,
for those Mahlerites interested in hearing how a first rate orchestra of
young (soon-to-be professional) players copes with Mahler's most demanding
work under the direction of a highly intelligent and able conductor, add
this to your shelf by all means. With all my reservations it's worth owning,
not least for the recording balance which will interest the audiophiles too.
Reviewer
Tony Duggan
Sixth Symphony:
Performance
Recording
Third Symphony:
Performance
Recording
