Unlike the Audite release
of Rafael Kubelik conducting Mahler’s
First Symphony in 1971 already
reviewed, this "live"
recording of the Sixth dates from the
same week as his studio recording for
DG. In fact I think we can say that
this would have been the concert performance
mounted to give the orchestra a chance
to rehearse and perform the work prior
to recording it in the very same hall.
Consequently there is really no difference
between this and the DG version and
if you already have the latter there
is no need for you to duplicate it.
Unlike the 1971 recording of the First
Symphony the Bavarian Radio engineers
have given the orchestra pretty much
the same kind of sound balance as those
of their DG colleagues. Everything is
close up with little air around the
instruments, the winds especially, and
a rather light bass end too. Of course,
if you don’t own the DG version and
are interested in collecting this Audite
cycle then you will still need to know
about Kubelik in this work.
As I wrote when reviewing
the Audite release of the First Symphony,
Kubelik’s reputation in Mahler is often
misleading. You often see expressions
like "understated", "lightweight"
and "lyrical" ascribed to
it. It’s all relative, of course. True,
Kubelik is certainly especially effective
when Mahler goes outdoors, back to nature
and the "Wunderhorn" moods.
But he can also surprise us in those
later works where a more astringent,
Modernist, fractured approach is called
for. This is especially the case if
you are prepared to see those crucial
aspects through the tinted glass of
nature awareness and in context with
how he sees the works that go before
and after them. No better illustration
of his ability to take in the advanced,
forward-looking aspect of Mahler's work
is provided by his approach to this
most Modernist of Mahler’s symphonies.
Kubelik’s performance
of the Sixth is astringent and very
pro-active. This is the music of a man
of action and vigour which, when Mahler
wrote it, he certainly was. The first
movement is very fast and this certainly
stresses the classical basis of this
most classically structured movement
and therefore, I believe, the nature
of the Tragedy embodied. It makes us
see Mahler’s "hero" prior
to the tragedy that overwhelms him in
the last movement in that the pressing
forward stresses optimism, a head held
high, a corrective to those accounts
that seem to want to condemn Mahler’s
hero to his doom from the word go, like
Barbirolli, for example. It also has
the effect of making the music jagged
and nervy in the way the episodes tumble
past kaleidoscopically. I must praise
the Bavarian Radio Orchestra here for
managing to hang on so unerringly to
the notes most of the time. Of course
the DG studio version means that there
are no errors of playing but you could
argue that if you are going to hear
a one-off "live" performance
a few mistakes only add to the tension.
Remember, however, that Kubelik’s tempi
in Mahler are always on average faster
than his colleagues and that ought to
mitigate a little the speeds encountered
here.
The Scherzo is placed
second and reinforces the energy, rigour
and astringency I remarked on in the
first movement. As usual Kubelik is
consistent and uncompromising to his
vision. Perhaps the speed adopted here
does fail to convey the peculiar "gait"
of the music and that must be a minus.
After this the third movement is beautifully
free-flowing and unselfconscious. In
fact it is hard to imagine a performance
of this movement that could be much
better in the way it seems to unfold
unassisted, moving in one great breath
to a glorious climax that is more effective
for being neither under nor over -stated.
Notice particularly the nostalgic solo
trumpet that is as true a Mahlerian
sound as you could wish for. The close-in
recording also allows many details to
emerge that you may not have hitherto
heard so well.
The opening of the
last movement is superbly done with
trenchancy and harsh detail unflinchingly
presented. The main allegro passages
emit the same white-hot intensity of
the first two movements and yet there
remains a controlling mind behind it
to guard against the intensity turning
into abandonment and so the tension
is ratcheted up. There are, as ever,
no histrionics from Kubelik. Indeed
there is from him just a tunnel-visioned
concentration. However, I did begin
to feel, particularly after the first
hammer blow, that all of this high intensity
actually threatens to overwhelm the
music’s innate poetry where there needs
to be a degree more flexibility, a degree
more humanity. That this impression
crucially impedes the listener’s ability
to notice contrasting passages where
you could reflect on what has gone and
what might be to come. I suppose you
could say that Kubelik allows no time
to catch the breath and I really think
there should be some. In fact I think
much the same can be said about the
first two movements under Kubelik but
that it takes the experience of the
fourth movement pitched at this pace
to really bring this home. The Coda,
where the trombone section intones a
funeral oration over the remains of
the fallen hero is, however, under Kubelik
an extraordinary sound with a degree
of vibrato allowed to the players that
chills to the marrow. That, at least,
is deeply moving and well worth waiting
for even if my overall verdict on Kubelik
in this whole symphony is that it falls
short of the greatest.
In the end I am left with
the feeling that this is a partial picture
of the Sixth, albeit an impressive one,
but still a partial one which leaves
us unsatisfied. I would advise you to
turn to Thomas Sanderling on RS which
I deal with in my Mahler recordings
survey or Gunther Herbig whose recording
on Berlin Classics I nominated a Record
of the Month: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Aug02/Mahler6_Herbig.htm
There is also Mariss Jansons
on LSO Live whose recent recording impressed
me greatly: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Oct03/JansonsM6.htm
and Michael Gielen on
Hänssler:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Mar02/Mahler6.htm
Look to all of those
those first.
Rafael Kubelik views
the Sixth as high intensity drama right
the way through. A perfectly valid view
and thrillingly delivered. But this
protean work succeeds when its protean
nature is laid out before us and Kubelik,
eyes wide open, does not really do that.
More space, more weight, more room is
needed throughout and at particularly
crucial nodal points (the two hammer-blows
are too lightweight in preparation and
delivery, for example) to really move
and impress as this symphony can under
those mentioned above.
Kubelik’s Mahler Sixth
is a very vivid, though very partial,
view of the work.
Tony Duggan
Tony
Duggan's comparative reviews of the
Mahler Symphonies
Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Rafael
Kubelik 