MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Crotchet  AmazonUK   AmazonUS

 

Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 4 in G major (1900)
Luba Orgonášová (soprano)
Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich/David Zinman
rec. 13-15 November 2006, Tonhalle, Zurich
RCA-BMG 88697 168522 [57:21]
Experience Classicsonline


ArkivMusic list around 100 Mahler Fourths on their website, so what makes this new one stand out from the rest? For a start it's the latest instalment in David Zinman's Tonhalle cycle, which has already yielded one of the most rewarding 'Resurrections' in recent memory (see review). Not only that, he has produced a thoughtful First, complete with discarded 'Blumine' movement. And although his Third was marginally less convincing than either (see review) this crisp, invigorating Fourth marks a welcome return to form.
 
Mahler's Fourth has a distinguished history on record, and with it comes a wide variety of performance styles. Listeners who prefer a relaxed, genial approach to this, the last of Mahler's 'Wunderhorn' symphonies, will be spoilt for choice; of course those who relish a real challenge can always try Roger Norrington's controversial reading on Hänssler 093164, more of which later.
 
Zinman's Mahler Fourth offers a happy medium without also being an unsatisfactory compromise. From the outset it's clear this is not one of those well-upholstered performances. Make no mistake, though, there is still plenty of charm and 'lift' here, but none of the cloying sentimentality the score so often attracts.
 
Philip Barford describes this symphony as 'a masterpiece of delicate counterpoint, Mozartian lucidity and sensuous beauty' (Philip Barford: Mahler Symphonies and Songs. BBC Music Guides, London, 1970) and it's a mark of Zinman's achievement that he captures all these qualities. The Zurich band play with complete conviction, phrasing and pointing with precision and feeling, especially at the start of the first movement. The flutes and sleigh bells and the dipping melody that follows have rarely sounded as transparent as they do here.
 
Clearly Zinman's Mahler owes much to historically informed performance practice (HIP) but what is so refreshing is that he wipes away the accumulated grime from these vast canvases without damaging the delicate pigments underneath. Norrington is inclined to be much more cavalier, swabbing away most of the detail as well.
 
Death really does lead the music of the second movement. This spooky Ländler – Mahler’s very own danse macabre – has just the right amount of inflection; the solo violinist’s playing ‘wie eine Fiedel’ is superbly realised too. The Sony-BMG engineers deserve praise for capturing all the spatial information that gives this recording its depth and breadth. Even the tiniest instrumental details are rendered with great clarity and naturalness; indeed, this must be one of the most tactile, 'hear through' performances of this symphony on disc.
 
Of course this work is not just about detail although there is plenty of it it's also about overall structure. Zinman has a solid grasp of Mahler's musical architecture. He paces the Ländler very convincingly, so when the music broadens at 6:26 it sounds entirely spontaneous. All too often this strange movement comes across as a series of discrete phrases wrapped in parentheses but Zinman manages to achieve a remarkable sense of organic growth and musical unity here.
 
Thus far Zinman’s performance is wonderfully buoyant, aerated even. Of course his sympathetic response to Mahler's delicate scoring counts for much, which is more than one can say for Norrington, who barely gives the notes time to breathe before pressing on regardless. The music’s topography is lost in the process, its hills and valleys hammered flat. It’s all so relentless and it sells Mahler short at every turn.
 
By contrast Zinman delves into the score in a way that is altogether more illuminating. In particular the Adagio has the usual ‘sensuous beauty’, the usual ebb and flow, but there is a surprising undertow as well. Seldom have the climaxes sounded so spectral, sending a real shiver up the spine. And surely there is more than a hint of the valedictory Ninth in those disembodied figures? Zinman crowns this movement with a peroration that yawns like an abyss, pounding timps and cymbals adding to the thrilling effect.
 
After the beautifully etched close to the Adagio comes the child-heaven finale. As in so many of Mahler's final movements this is make or break time. Great sopranos past and present have tackled this faux-naif style of singing with mixed results. Ever the iconoclast Leonard Bernstein even opted for a boy soloist in his DG account, which really doesn’t work at all.
 
Zinman’s choice of soloist – the Bratislava-born soprano Luba Orgonášová – is interesting, and it’s one that will probably divide critics the most. The singer is set further back than usual, which makes for a much more integrated sound picture; thankfully audibility and diction aren’t sacrificed in the process. If there are any caveats it’s that Orgonášova’s voice is more soft-grained than we are used to and it’s a touch too mature to suggest childlike innocence. In spite of these minor reservations she makes a fairly convincing job of it. An acquired taste, certainly, but very much in keeping with Zinman’s fresh approach to this loveliest of scores.
 
This wondrous new Fourth – and for once the superlative is warranted, for it is a performance full of wonder – confirms Zinman as a Mahlerian of real stature. The reading may not displace the likes of Mengelberg, Szell, Klemperer et al but it does deserve a place alongside them. As for recent rivals this simply knocks Norrington into a cocked hat.
 
The Sony-BMG disc sounds splendid in both its CD and SACD incarnations, with the higher-resolution format offering an extra degree of transparency and detail. Some listeners may find the sound a trifle lightweight, a criticism levelled at earlier discs in the cycle, but what we are hearing is the music relieved of all its excess baggage.
 
So, another fine instalment in what is surely the most significant – and satisfying – Mahler cycle in progress. Roll on the Fifth!
 
Dan Morgan
 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.