Gustav MAHLER
Symphony No.3 in D
minor
Iris Vermillion (Mezzo),
Frauenchor der Sing-Akademie,
Frauenchor des Bremer Theaters, Tolzer Knabenchor,
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen/Gunter
Neuhold
Bella Musica -
Antes Edition BM-CD 14.9005 [94.00]
More Mahler from Bremen. I have already reviewed Gunter Neuhold's recordings
of the First and Second Symphonies on Antes Edition and now here is the Third,
likewise the product of "live" performances. On the evidence of these three
recordings Neuhold certainly seems consistent in his approach to Mahler.
He is a direct and "no frills" interpreter, preferring to stress the symphonic
line, the structure over the details, which is refreshing in his sharpness
of focus and his unwillingness, or perhaps his inability, to impose himself
too much on the music. However, Mahler is one composer where consistency
over the whole or even part of the canon can be a real disadvantage. Each
symphony is profoundly different from the one before it and an inability,
or an unwillingness, to recognise this and trim the sails accordingly can
get in the way, as ultimately it does so here. But Neuhold's approach certainly
works to advantage in the first movement because that benefits from a firm
hand on the tiller preventing Mahler's audacious imagination sprawling his
ideas all over the place and binding together the episodes into the kind
of kaleidoscopic parade he surely intended. Eyebrows might be raised at the
thirty-one minute length but at no time does this appear rushed. Indeed I
liked the very clipped brass in the funeral marches each time they appeared
and there is some good forward momentum in those marches that depict the
arrival of summer which comes as a very rude awakening indeed. Here too is
the kind of raw penetration from the brass section that I felt was missing
in the recent recording by Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
on Delos (DE 3248). It's not "pretty" playing but it's very effective and
apt playing. In this movement Neuhold also seems to fire his players with
the kind of commitment that the too-complacent Dallas players lacked to depict
the whole of nature as a craggy, hard-edged beast with appalling table manners.
Listen to the "seize the day" opening on all eight horns for a statement
of intent. The sound recording is a touch dry and bass shy and this means
the lower string uprushes and primeval grumblings that are such a distinctive
feature of this movement don't really come over with the kind of earth-shaking
attack that they can, which is certainly a minus.
The rest of the performance doesn't quite live up to the promise shown in
the first movement, however. This is where Neuhold's apparent inability to
vary his approach lets him down. The great posthorn solos in the third movement
are a case in point. These should be passages of great nostalgia and repose.
Under Neuhold they are much too stiff and strict to really beguile. Too lacking
in poetry to really stimulate the imagination, which is what Mahler is surely
trying to do here. The rest of the movement suffers from much the same problem
too. Nowhere did I feel Neuhold was aware of Mahler's own description of
the movement "as if all nature were making faces and sticking out its tongue".
Conversely in the fourth movement, a setting for Contralto of Nietzsche's
"O Mensch" with a responsive Iris Vermillion well-placed, Neuhold instructs
his solo oboist to observe literally Mahler's marking "hinaufziehen"
which is a kind of upwards glissando that once heard is never forgotten but
is seldom observed. A detail of playing I found surprising to hear in this
kind of performance, I must say. In delivering this effect Neuhold's player
is a little more discrete than Simon Rattle's in his EMI recording where
the effect is also observed, and that is to be welcomed. I don't think there
is any doubt Mahler wanted something different from the way this is usually
played so I congratulate Neuhold for noticing it and presenting it so well,
showing he can be aware of specific detail when he wants. I also admire the
lusty singing he gets out of his boys' choirs in the fifth movement prior
to the long finale. The latter receives a concentrated, noble interpretation
with great line and is a fine antidote to the mawkishness that can sometimes
creep in here. However, it doesn't really crown the performance with the
kind of sustained legato the greatest interpreters of the symphony bring
and so the effect is ultimately rather cold. Take the last five movements
together, in effect Part II of the whole symphony, and Neuhold's overview
brings the work home quite satisfactorily. Stop off to admire the various
views and perspective on the way, however, and you will soon run out of aspects
to admire, delight and move you.
The recorded sound is detailed and sharp but that slight dryness and lack
of depth in the bass has to be taken into account right the way through the
long work. As in the rest of the symphony the orchestral playing is alert
and polished, but corporately lacking in the depth of response to be found
in the greatest recordings of this work. These remain Barbirolli (BBC Legends
BBCL 4004-7), Horenstein (Unicorn UKCD 2006/7 or in the Brilliant Classics
boxed set), Bernstein (Sony) and Kubelik (DG) from the previous generation,
with Rattle (EMI (56657) and Sinopoli (DG 447 051) from the present one.
All these appear to be more flexible Mahler thinkers than Neuhold, more aware
of the performing traditions, of digging into the music's guts.
Once again Gunter Neuhold is a persuasive guide to a Mahler symphony, not
without merit or interest, but in the last analysis not challenging enough
to the greatest versions.
Tony Duggan
Visit Tony Duggan's Mahler pages
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