Having
raved about the San Francisco Tilson Thomas recording of
Mahler’s 7th Symphony, I was delighted to have
the opportunity to sample the great 5th Symphony,
packaged like the others in this series with a nice box and
booklet, and with sumptuous SACD hybrid sound. Once again
I have the luxury of a big thick 1904 edition Peters Edition
score, bought for virtually no money in an unwieldy heap
with all the other Mahler Symphonies from a Dutch charity
shop ignorant of their true value. My other reference is
Leonard Bernstein’s 1988 DG recording, chosen as ‘Building
a Library’ recommendation some years ago by David Mellor.
While Mr. Mellor’s opinion may not be my reference on most
things, at least the 1999 ‘Rough Guide’ to Classical Music
is in agreement, with Lenny’s DG Mahler 5 in there with their
top 100 ‘Essential CDs’.
So,
leaving this image of your friendly reviewer deep into his
element, does Tilson Thomas topple Bernstein’s legendary
Vienna Philharmonic recording? Certainly, much of what I
admired in the 7th Symphony recording is present
in this new 5th. The detail is quite remarkable.
Following the score you can sense the accuracy in terms of
balance and colour, with all boxes ticked in terms of satisfaction
with regard to sound quality. By comparison, Bernstein’s
orchestra can sound quite blowsy at times, the pre-fire Alte
Oper in Frankfurt no doubt contributing to a considerably
vast and resonant sound platform.
The
opening pages of the symphony are something of a microcosm
when comparing the two recordings at hand. Why is it that
Bernstein seems to be able to create more drama and more
impact – why is it his recording rather than Tilson Thomas’s
you want to hear right to the end? Small points add up to
substantially different results. Bernstein (arguably) seems
to have the better solo trumpet in general, but it’s the
attention to dynamics which make the difference – subtle
inflections which transform the opening curtain-call. The
solo builds from a low D# to one an octave higher in the
first seven bars – the high note having a small diminuendo
which the San Francisco player ignores. Just before the tutti
chord which crashes in at the end of the solo, Bernstein
uses the diminuendo from sf to reach p which
is intended for the entry of the second trumpet, going up
to ff in half a bar, for the solo trumpet as well.
This is a bit naughty, but boy does that extreme crescendo
make the ‘hit’ of that first chord something stunning. Again,
at this point the San Francisco trumpet seems to ignore that
last diminuendo before the opening tutti, which is a shame – if
you want real crescendo you have to start quietly. Reaching
down into the Pesante depths before the first ‘tune’ at
figure 2, Bernstein is somehow rougher and more forceful
with those hammer blow triplets: Tilson Thomas gets there
as well, but the impact is less – subtly so, and only in
evidence when you make direct comparisons like these, but
to me they sum up my reasons for preferring one over the
other. With Tilson Thomas, the transition between the end
of that descending scale and that violin/cello theme at 2
sounds just that, a transition. Bernstein is already giving
us the chills, emphasising the funeral-march nature of those
eight bars.
I
could go on like this for hours, but I should imagine you
are getting the point by now. Moving along to the second
movement there is another case in point. After rehearsal
mark 11 there is a bare section with only celli and a timp
pedal roll. This cello section solo at the change of key
between rehearsal marks 11 and 12 is marked PP klagend.
Tilson Thomas gets the PP, but Bernstein shows the
way to wring a klagend character from this relatively
simple line – allowing the celli some portamenti between
the seventh interval leaps, and emphasising them with extra
stresses – admittedly not in the score, but surely providing
Mahler with more of what he seems to have wanted.
The
opening of the Scherzo has Tilson Thomas coming out
on top for once. Bernstein takes Mahler’s ‘nicht zu schnell’ marking
just a little too seriously, and it is with the San Francisco
orchestra that we get more of the Ländler schwung that
this music seems to demand. I would at this point like to
make clear that this new recording and performance is in
no way a bad one – very, very far from it. The orchestral
playing is of the highest quality, and with demonstration
sound collectors of this edition need have no qualms about
adding this disc to their collection. Bernstein is in some
ways a unique case, but another of my reasons for selecting
his version as a comparison is that both make claims as being ‘live’ recordings.
I have no way of proving otherwise, any more than I could
disprove a spiritualist orchestra’s claim to have made their
recording ‘in the presence of the composer’, but be sure
of one thing, both ‘live’ recordings have had any offensive
bumps or squeaks airbrushed into oblivion. There is a little
moment in the new recording which proved this to me. In the
first movement at 7:27-8 there is a digital ‘splice’, a small
bump in the decay at the final chord before Tempo 1 which
even Mr. Doppler would never be able to explain away as anything
other than a big fat edit. The San Francisco make no claims
otherwise, but like the DG Bernstein set, you never get to
hear how much of the work was done the day after the concert,
with invited bodies to sit in the audience so that the acoustic
is comparable with concert conditions (I know, I was that
soldier). There is another mildly disturbing blip at 5:03
into the final movement, as if someone might have spluttered
sugary coffee onto the tape at some stage, but for a live
recording the present disc is otherwise as clean as the proverbial
whistle, with no applause at the end – just some ghostly
whispers in the decay of the final chord.
The
only remaining million-dollar question is; will Tilson Thomas
bring us to an other-worldly nirvana with the famous Adagietto fourth
movement? The secret here lies in the strings of course,
and the San Francisco ‘sound’ is relatively cool in comparison
to Bernstein’s vibrato-laden Vienna violins. The DG recording
highlights the harp just a little too much for my ears, so
it comes back to a question of taste. Bernstein loads the
lines with more emotional charge; Tilson Thomas gives us
a more ethereal transport to those heavenly heights.
This
new Mahler 5 is a truly excellent performance, and a stunning
recording. If it is Bernstein which keeps me sitting until
my bladder is fit to burst rather than wandering off to make
a coffee, then that might just be my problem, and I really
don’t want to put you off with such unsavoury details. I
would most certainly recommend this recording for study purposes
for the detail alone, and for SACD sound these San Francisco
issues are hard to beat for sheer orchestral glory. The benefits
are all there in the clarity and quality of the production,
my only real caveat is in the character of the performance – something
about which I would expect listeners to be able to make their
own minds.
Dominy Clements
see also review by Tony Duggan
San Francisco
Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas 
[73:21]
