Although the musical
partnership between the Lucerne Festival
Orchestra and Claudio Abbado is a little
over a year old much is being made of
it – and rightly so. This is the first
official CD – excepting the Lucerne
Festival’s own one – to capture the
orchestra; two DVDs have also been released.
Hearing them live this year at the opening
concert of the 2004
Festival in a magnificent performance
of Act II from Tristan und Isolde
only confirms what an exceptional orchestra
this is. It can only be to everyone’s
benefit that its concerts with Abbado
are being captured for posterity. This
disc takes two performances from the
2003 Festival – the La mer from
the opening concert (which was coupled
with Wotan’s ‘Farewell’ from Walküre
and Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint
Sébastien) and a concert
from a couple of days later of Mahler’s
Second Symphony. There were, in fact,
two performances given of the Mahler
and the booklet note only dates them
as being from 19th and 20th
August. Having lived with the radio
broadcast of this extraordinary performance
for the past year the performance replicated
by DG here is of the first of those
two concerts.
Recent Abbado could
be said to reflect this conductor’s
Indian Summer. As Albrecht Mayer, the
principal oboe of the Lucerne Festival
Orchestra, told me last week, Abbado
looks at every day as being quite possibly
his last and his music-making is increasingly
a reflection of this. Whilst Abbado
has conducted much Debussy, he has never
actually set La mer down on disc
but the performance we have here is
stunning. You have to go back many years
to find a combination of colour and
individuality in the playing to match
what the Lucerne Orchestra reproduce
here; indeed for sheer artistry only
Guido Cantelli’s Philharmonia recording
from the 1950s really begins to compare
with it. In part, Abbado’s success in
this work is because he encourages his
players to listen to each other as they
would when playing chamber music, or
opera. Each soloist – and the orchestra
has the cream of today’s players – Emmanuel
Pahud on the flute, Albrecht Mayer on
the oboe and Sabine Meyer on clarinet,
for example – plays with such attention
to dynamics that at times it is like
hearing this score being played for
the first time. Abbado himself is at
times super-charged (his Mahler Fifth
from this year’s festival was literally
torn from the score) and that adds an
incandescence to a performance already
dripping with the purest artistic integrity.
The performance of
Mahler’s Second is also a revelation.
Recalling perhaps most closely a superlative
Mahler Second which Abbado gave with
the Vienna Philharmonic in 1968 (and
available occasionally on unofficial
labels) it has a searing quality that
is largely missing from the two performances
he recorded for DG earlier in his career.
It is not that Abbado has radically
rethought the work – he eschews, for
example, any of the changes introduced
into the new Kaplan edition - it is
rather that the flaws which mar his
other recordings (notably a slackness
of pace) are here almost entirely overwritten.
What is notable about this latest performance
is its tension – at times quite unyielding
– and the enormous span over which Abbado
is able to sustain it. Tempi are markedly
different than earlier – the second
movement moves with much more alacrity
(some may find it too brisk) – and the
power which he brings to the final movement
is compressed and cumulative. In short,
this is a supremely well balanced reading.
This is also a performance that rages
like a furnace – climaxes are constantly
ignited by fire – and one that has natural
and unforced spontaneity to it. So secure
is the playing – and this is one of
the best played performances of any
Mahler symphony you will hear – that
Abbado is able to concentrate on mastering
the evolution of the symphony without
having to focus on matters of ensemble.
To paraphrase Albrecht Mayer again,
this was a performance where both orchestra
and conductor were unified in their
conception of the work.
Some (most) performances
on record benefit from a detailed dissection
of how a conductor shapes each movement,
but Abbado’s Mahler Second is one of
the rare examples of a performance that
should be listened to, and written about,
in its entirety rather than critically
taken apart. This is a visionary performance
that from the savagery of the opening
movement’s ’cellos and basses (and they
are absolutely thrillingly played) to
the power and apotheosis of the vast
finale’s closing pages has a single
unbroken thread running through it.
One could point out numerous individual
instances – the ‘humming’ strings at
Fig 5 in the first movement, the perfect
glissandi at Fig 23 in the Ländler,
the apocalyptic crescendo at Fig 50
in the third movement, the unhidden
– and unabashed - terror at Fig 8 after
the final movement’s opening explosion
– that separate this performance from
others. However what one is constantly
aware of throughout the trajectory of
this reading is what Mahler himself
thought when he heard the symphony:
‘One is battered to the ground and then
raised on angels’ wings to the highest
heights.’ Both Abbado’s soloists and
chorus are equal partners in helping
to achieve this.
The KKL concert hall
in Lucerne – one of the most magnificent
in the world - provides almost the ideal
ambience in which to record this symphony
and DG’s recording is indeed full bodied
and unrestricted. Climaxes are natural
and focused. Depth of sound and transparency
of texture are cleanly heard. They add
bloom to performances that are second
to none and make this one of the most
remarkable discs of either work to acquire.
Marc Bridle
La Mer is
available on DVD - see review
by John Phillips (an August
Recording of the Month)
Comment received
Greetings,
Last month Marc Bridle reviewed a new
Mahler sym 2 with Abaddo in Lucerne.
Mahler strikes different reactions in
different people, and I'd like to voice
my thoughts. I've always found Abaddo
rather cool and clinical; his recordings
usually seem to be missing something.
The Abaddo/Lucerne M2 is basically a
good performance and there's a lot to
enjoy. Unfortunately, there are a few
problems that detract from it. The first
movement seems too comfortable and doesn't
make a big impact on the listener as
a great performance does, despite a
flowing tempo (actually, all of Abaddo's
tempos are quick). The brass section
is a little too reticent and it's hard
to hear the tuba. It would also help
if the timpani were louder and more
discernible, which are too polite much
of the time. The tapping of the bows
- where the strings tap their bows -
is almost inaudible. The inner movements
are very good, breezy & straight
forward but with little charm. We get
excellent singing from the contralto
in IV, but more problems crop up in
the last movement. The off stage instruments
are too far away, almost inaudible.
Some may prefer that but I like to hear
it a little easier. At other times the
horns seem to be recessed somewhat.
Also, the organ is practically inaudible
at the end. This performance left me
feeling that something was missing.
That missing something is supplied
in the new Tilson Thomas M2 (just released);
a very different type of performance.
Tempos are slower but the timpani and
brass are more prevalent, creating a
greater impact. What horns! MTT tends
to hold the notes a bit
longer and uses more rubato, letting
the music register and breathe, whereas
Abaddo is brief, always moving forward.
MTT also has excellent singers and chorus
and his finale is overwhelming. The
off stage instruments are perfect and
you can hear the organ at the end. Each
of these Mahler recordings has its advantages
and drawbacks. Abaddo gives us a taut
"just the facts" performance;
MTT lives every moment, exaggerating
things a bit but making big points and
providing big rewards. In this work
I prefer San Francisco, a truly great
orchestra.
P. Weber
Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Claudio Abbado
