A Financial Times critic
said of this recording that it is a
"life-changing experience for anyone
who thought they knew their Mahler".
I hadn’t read that until after I’d listened
many times over, but he expresses exactly
what I feel, too. This performance really
does give a new perspective on a much-loved
symphony. It is especially important
because it has been over thirty years
since Boulez last recorded this symphony.
Whatever a conductor
of this stature has to say is going
to be worth listening to. Decades ago,
Boulez said, when speaking of Mahler,
that the world was "approaching
the end of an era surfeited with richness,
asphyxiated with plethora … Goodbye,
romanticism, with your fatty degeneration
of the heart!" Mahler was in so
many ways ahead of his time. As Boulez
continued Mahler’s music "had little
of the typical fin de siècle
turgidity … more relevant is the anxiety
of an artist creating a new world that
proliferates beyond his rational control,
a dizzying sense of uniting agreement
and contradiction in equal parts … and
the search for an order less obviously
established and less easily accepted".
Thus Boulez hears in Mahler a modernism
that’s bracingly refreshing. This is
a recording of startling insight, and
extremely valuable in terms of advancing
Mahler performance practice.
From the start, this
interpretation highlights the symphony’s
architecture. Indeed, this would be
an excellent first version for anyone
who doesn’t know the symphony at all,
because the development is so lucid.
Even the most pianissimo details
can be heard clearly, yet the sense
of purpose is such that every sound
has a function, and makes a contribution
to the whole. Each theme is deftly delineated.
The great angular shapes of the Allegro
maestoso are there for a reason,
and have a role to play in the progress
towards the resounding culmination of
the "Resurrection" in the
final movement. A few years ago, Boulez
and the Vienna Philharmonic recorded
Mahler’s Third Symphony, where similar
great walls of sound push the music
towards an inexorable conclusion; here
we have even more powerful surges. For
Boulez, this "sense of trajectory"
is an integral part of the musical logic.
He makes the Second Symphony move with
remarkable vigour. It’s irrelevant what
the actual timing might be – what matters
is that it flows well and feels perfectly
judged.
Orchestral playing
on this level is inherently exciting.
Of course you know what’s happening
next, but you can’t quite believe that
playing can be so good, so nuanced,
so exquisite. It does real justice to
Mahler’s music, where large forces must
be handled with precision and power,
yet, at the same time, be as refined
as if in chamber ensemble. Many times,
the playing is so achingly beautiful
you don’t want the moment to end, and
yet it is not the virtuosity per
se you’re admiring but the way it
achieves the musical development as
a whole. While listening, I was stunned
to realize that I’d been weeping real
tears at the sheer beauty of this level
of musicianship. Mahler was a conductor
who wanted very high standards, though
orchestras in his time were often not
as sophisticated as they are now. Perhaps
he, too, might have wept with joy listening
to how the Vienna Philharmonic brings
his notes to life with such feeling
and clarity.
In the second movement,
the orchestra sounds as if its virtuosity
is utterly effortless, so graceful is
its "nicht eilen". The first
movement may be more immediately striking,
but this orchestra and conductor show
that the quiet Andante, is no
less fascinating, for they define its
complex counter melodies and invention
with clarity. Later, the Fischpredigt
theme is played with outstanding vivacity.
Even without knowing the reference,
the playing evokes the image of vivid
agility. In the Scherzo, Mahler
expresses whirling movement, vibrancy,
constant upheaval, where, as he wrote,
"the world appears as in a concave
mirror, distorted and mad". Boulez
is vividly precise with the dissonances
and sudden swoops of tone. Yet even
in these dark moments, there are hints
of the triumphant theme to come. This
is an interpretation which elucidates
how brilliantly Mahler integrated his
ideas.
In this Urlicht,
the Röschen rot really
seems to emerge from deep roots. The
text is an overwhelmingly profound declaration
of faith, one that the composer was
to develop throughout his career. It
is a myth that this must be sung without
vibrato, for well modulated vibrato
breathes resonance and depth into long-held
vowels. DeYoung has sung a lot of Mahler,
and for good reason. Hers is a voice
with rich, natural dignity and she uses
it with a genuine understanding of the
ideas expressed. More surprisingly,
Christine Schäfer gives an exceptionally
beautiful performance, since her voice
is on the light side for Mahler. But
Schäfer and Boulez have worked
together so many times and seem to bring
out the best in each other.
This is one of the
most inspiring Aufersteh’ns I’ve
heard. I thought I knew it well, but
this really was a revelation. That first
fanfare could blast away cobwebs. Gradually
the "soaring" motif is introduced,
beautifully underscored by pizzicato
strings, whose music is echoed on horn.
Then, like a tsunami, a great drum-roll
announces the exposition of the main
theme, trumpets blazing, strings sweeping
in perfect formation. Here is where
clarity of concept pays off: Boulez
keeps the textures clearly defined,
keeping details in focus without losing
the dynamic. Each climax seems to give
way to ever-expanding new vistas. Imagine
them as you will, as walls of sound
and light, or mountain peaks, anything,
it doesn’t matter as long as you’re
following the traverse, for that sense
of journey, of building and striving
is essential. It doesn’t need to be
lumpen to be effective. Boulez carefully
unravels the perpetual motion in the
Scherzo, and builds up plateaux
of crescendi that lead, inexorably,
towards a final goal.
Almost reverentially,
as if approaching from a distance, the
chorus arises from the orchestra just
as the alto part had done earlier. This
reinforces the sense of trajectory that
has been the undercurrent throughout.
Then, you hear why Boulez keeps choosing
Schäfer. With the merest wash of
colour, she introduces a serene sense
of purity tinged with joy "...
hast nichst umsonnst gelebt, gelitten!".
She may not have as much to sing
as DeYoung, but what she does is critical,
for she embodies a new level of light
that encapsulates the whole idea of
resurrection. Literally, "mit
Flügeln, …werd’ ich entschweben
zum Licht, zu dem kein Aug’ gedrungen!"
- "With wings, I shall soar upwards
to the Light, to which no eye has soared".
Boulez’s interpretation
is truly infused with light, and illuminates
how Mahler’s music germinates and grows.
Mahler was a man of mental acuity, who
was uncommonly well informed and literate,
and who kept pursuing new ideas and
concepts. Even in his Romantic moods,
he was not given to sentimentality.
Boulez concentrates on how the music
works, and on what Mahler felt about
it. This is important, because Mahler
was a thinker and intellectual. In many
ways, his whole career was a search
for the meaning of life, developed through
the prism of music. Not for him, I suspect,
"the fatty degeneration of the
heart" that has crept into some
aspects of Mahler appreciation. This
recording will draw fire, as all good
and original work seems to do. But it
is an essential for anyone genuinely
interested in learning more about Mahler
and Mahler interpretation. It’s not
instantly flamboyant, but repays careful
and perceptive listening. The last words
in the symphony say it all: "was
du geschlagen, zu Gott wird es dich
tragen" (what thou hast fought
for shall lead you to God"). This
truly is inspirational.
Anne Ozorio
Christine Schäfer, (soprano) 
