Rafael Kubelik was
one of the first conductors to record
a cycle of Mahler’s nine completed symphonies.
Those recordings, all made with the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, were
set down for DG between about 1967 and
1970. Though highly esteemed by many,
Kubelik’s Mahler has been judged by
others to lack the expansiveness and
sheer emotional weight that certain
other conductors, such as Bernstein,
Solti and Tennstedt offer. In recent
years the Audite label has issued live
performances by Kubelik of several Mahler
symphonies (numbers 1, 3 and 5 have
appeared to date). Last year they also
put us greatly in their debt by issuing
a superb
live account of Das Lied von
der Erde, a work that he never recorded
commercially. Now along comes a concert
performance of the Ninth recorded some
eight years after his studio recording.
In an excellent essay
on the Ninth the American writer Michael
Steinberg points out the parallel drawn
by Deryck Cooke between this Mahler
symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth. In
brief, Cooke suggested that in composing
his Ninth Mahler had in mind the formal
model of the Pathétique, noting
that both symphonies begin and end with
a long movement, and that in each case
the finale is an extended adagio. Both
composers place shorter movements in
quicker tempi between these two outer
musical pillars. Steinberg adds that
Mahler conducted a series of performances
of the Tchaikovsky symphony in early
1910, after he had completed the full
draft of his Ninth. He also reminds
us that, though posterity has, perhaps
inevitably, imparted a valedictory quality
to both works, neither composer intended
these respective symphonies to be their
last compositions.
This last point seems
to me to be of fundamental importance
in approaching Mahler’s Ninth. Yes,
it is the last work that he completed
fully and he was deeply superstitious
about the composition of a ninth symphony.
However, he had no sooner completed
the Ninth than he began frantic work
on a tenth symphony, which he left fully
sketched out at his death. The manuscript
score of the Ninth includes a number
of expressions of farewell in Mahler’s
hand but there are even more of these
scrawled in the manuscript of the Tenth.
So, while there is a strong valedictory
flavour to this symphony, most especially
in the last movement, I think it’s a
mistake to play it as if it were an
anguished farewell to music.
I say this because
Kubelik’s performance may be thought
by some to be lightweight because it
is comparatively swift and because long
passages in the last movement in particular
are more flowing than we commonly hear
them. However, Kubelik’s performance
is by no means the swiftest on disc.
Bruno Walter’s celebrated 1938 live
account with the Vienna Philharmonic
lasted a "mere" 70’13"
but broader conceptions seem to have
become more the accepted norm as the
years have passed.
The first movement
of this symphony is a turbulent, seething
invention. Indeed, I wonder if it may
be Mahler’s single greatest achievement?
Kubelik exposes the music objectively
and without fuss. There’s a complete
absence of excessive histrionics but
the music still speaks to us powerfully.
This is an interpretation of integrity
– in fact, that description could well
suffice for the reading of the whole
symphony. Kubelik has a fine ear for
texture and balance, as is evidenced,
for example, in the chamber-like sonorities
in the passage from 6’27" to 8’40".
In these pages all the orchestral detail
is picked out, but in a wholly natural
way. Although there are one or two overblown
notes from the brass (not a trait that
is evident in the other three movements)
the playing is very fine and committed.
There is one unfortunate flaw, however:
the timpani are ill tuned at two critical
points (at 6’27" and 18’00").
The second movement
is an earthy ländler and Kubelik
and his players convey Mahler’s trenchant
irony very well. There are innumerable
shifts in the character of the music
and Kubelik responds to each with acuity.
I would describe his work here as understanding
and idiomatic.
The turbulent, grotesque
Rondo – Burleske that follows
is also splendidly characterised. The
contrapuntal pyrotechnics of Mahler’s
score come across extremely well. The
pungent fast music is interrupted (at
6’25" here) by a much warmer episode
in which a shining trumpet line is particularly
to the fore. This episode is beautifully
judged by Kubelik. The brazen coda is
well handled though I must admit that
I’ve heard it done with greater panache
in some other performances.
A few years ago I attended
a performance of this symphony in Birmingham
conducted by Simon Rattle. On that occasion
he launched straight into the last movement
with only an imperceptible break after
the Rondo. The effect was tremendous
and of a piece with his searing conception
of the music on that evening. I suspect
that Kubelik would never have made such
a gesture for his way with the finale
is less overt, less subjective. In fact
the start of this movement is nothing
if not dignified here. As the massed
strings begin their hymn-like melody,
singing their hearts out for Kubelik,
we are back in the sound world of the
finale to the Third symphony. There’s
ample weight and gravitas from the strings
in these pages. The subsequent ghostly
passage that commences with the wraith-like
contrabassoon solo is well controlled
too.
At the heart of the
movement is a long threnody, carried
mainly by the strings (from 6’11").
Kubelik’s tempo is quite flowing here
and it’s his treatment of this episode
in particular that accounts for the
relative swiftness of the movement overall.
Prospective listeners may want to know
that he takes 22’23" for the finale.
By contrast Herbert Von Karajan (his
1982 live reading on DG) takes 26’49",
Leonard Bernstein, also live on DG (his
1979 concert with the Berlin Philharmonic,
his only appearance with that orchestra)
takes 26’12". Jascha Horenstein
on BBC Legends (a 1966 concert performance)
takes 26’50". Somewhat quicker
overall is Rattle in his VPO recording
for EMI at 24’43". It will be noted
that like Kubelik’s all these performances
are live ones. However, there is one
important precedent for Kubelik’s relative
swiftness. Bruno Walter, the man who
gave the first performance of the Ninth,
dispatched the finale in an amazing
18’20" in his 1938 live VPO traversal.
These comparative timings are of interest.
However, I must stress that though Kubelik
doesn’t hang about the music never sounds
rushed. The phrases all have time to
breathe and there’s no suspicion that
the performance is overwrought. I found
it convincing. The extended climax (from
12’56") is powerfully projected.
The final pages (from 17’28") are
not lacking in poignancy and as the
very end approaches (from 19’08")
there’s a proper feeling of hushed innigkeit
and tender leave-taking. Happily, there’s
no applause at the end to break the
spell (indeed, there’s no distracting
audience noise at all that I could discern).
The recorded sound
is perfectly acceptable. The acoustic
of this Tokyo hall is a little on the
dry side and there isn’t quite the space
and bloom round the sound not the front-to-back
depth that might have been achieved
in the orchestra’s regular venue, the
Herkulessaal in Munich. However, the
slight closeness of the recording means
that lots of inner detail emerges.
There’s a good deal
to admire in this recording and there’s
certainly an atmosphere of live music
making. Above all, this release gives
us another opportunity to hear a dedicated,
wide and committed Mahler conductor
performing a great masterpiece of the
symphonic literature with authority.
This is a fine version that admirers
of this conductor and devotees of Mahler
should seek out and hear. I hope Audite
will be able to source and release more
such concert performances and, who knows,
perhaps build up a complete live Kubelik
Mahler cycle in due course.
John Quinn
See
Tony Duggan's comparative review of
recordings of this symphony
Recorded live in Bunka Kaikan Concert Hall,
Tokyo, 4 June 1975. ADD 