BARGAIN OF MONTH
Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911)
Symphonies Nos. 1-9, Symphony No. 10 (Adagio)
Symphonies Nos. 1, 4, 9: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 7: New York Philharmonic
Symphonies Nos. 5, 6, 8, 10: Vienna Philharmonic
Conductor: Leonard Bernstein
See below for full details
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 8668 [11 CDs: 746:00]
This is an old vintage reissued gloriously. It’s far from a new release, but
it could well turn out to be one of the most significant issues of this Mahler
anniversary year. It comprises Bernstein’s DG Mahler cycle of the symphonies
(no song-cycles) in a compact space at super budget price. All recordings
are live and all benefit from it.
Leonard Bernstein is still Gustav Mahler’s most famous and, controversially,
most significant interpreter. It was he who really popularised the composer’s
music in the USA and he invented a whole new performing tradition for Mahler.
People still disagree violently over the merits of Bernstein’s performances:
they are variously exhilarating, infuriating, frustrating, disappointing,
revelatory, cosmic, virtuosic or perverse. However, and this is the key point,
they are never neutral. Bernstein’s Mahler forces you to take a stand. I don’t
think that anyone will love every performance in this box, but after listening
to this set I am convinced that no serious Mahlerian will want to be without
it.
Bernstein himself was famous for being a dynamo, and something of a maniac
on the podium so it is perhaps unsurprising that he should find such an affinity
with Mahler’s music. It is the conductor’s restless energy that is immediately
apparent in this set’s first CD: right through the First Symphony’s spellbinding
opening you are on the edge of your seat, wondering what will happen next.
This gives way to a wonderfully exuberant allegro where minor imprecisions
of ensemble and a little extraneous noise don’t matter in the context of what
is going on. There is a real sense of build towards the joyous eruption of
the coda. It is entirely typical of Bernstein that he wallows in the vulgarity
of the second movement, including ridiculous glissandi and over-the-top winds.
He also revels in the contrasts of the funeral march where the brief consolation
of the Wayfaring song clashes with the vulgarity of the klezmer music. There
is an astonishing explosion at the outset of the finale and the utmost desolation
of the opening leads to utmost exaltation at the end. The white-hot blaze
of the final bars could have come from the baton of no-one else, and the whole
performance is helped by wonderfully clear sound, capturing the atmosphere
of the Concertgebouw beautifully.
The other most easily recommendable performance is the Fifth. There is a wonderful
sense of scale to the funeral march, helped by slow speeds and a troublingly
insistent snare-drum rhythm. The second movement begins with, if anything,
an even more vicious attack, though it loses momentum as the music progresses.
The chorale theme, when it comes, is remarkably striking and its climax sails
out over the orchestral texture. After it the rest of the movement seems to
ebb (die?) away and the opening of the scherzo is less manic than one might
have expected. Bernstein’s Adagietto is controversial for some, but not for
me. I found it beautifully played and recorded, and perfectly paced; no self-indulgence
or languor here. The finale begins a little slowly but picks up and builds
on a rising tide of excitement to the reappearance of the brass chorale, sounding
fantastic and providing a fitting culmination to one of this symphony’s most
successful interpretations on disc.
Elsewhere the story is more mixed, but the energy and vibrancy of Bernstein’s
interpretations won me over (almost) every time. In the Second he adopts a
steady tempo for the first movement, setting the tone for a magisterial reading
that takes its time but finds consolation in the more tender moments. It builds
to a jaw-dropping climax at the end of the development (around 16 minutes
in). The closing bars have a chilling finality to them. The slow pace of the
Andante takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s not an invalid reading. The
scream of the Scherzo is an almighty climax followed by nothingness. The Urlicht
is paced well but Christa Ludwig is unsteady both here and in the finale where
she is matched with a radiant Barbara Hendricks. The finale begins in a frenzy,
though I thought Bernstein would make more of the vast drumroll crescendos.
The entry of the choir is truly magical and the climax thumps with conviction.
The sonic spectacular of the final bars loses much of the detail but that’s
almost inevitable in music of this scale.
In the Third the conductor straddles the vast structure of the first movement
with confidence but he has a great ear for detail and the individual solos
are beautifully pointed, leavening the texture very convincingly. Tongue is
kept firmly in cheek for most of the scherzo and tempi slow down wilfully
(or should that be comically?) for the run-up to the posthorn solo. Bernstein
lingers lovingly in this section, for which all is shimmery radiance. He takes
the fourth movement faster than you might expect, thus it is less hushed and
intense than you might like. Ludwig is more focused here, however, and the
orchestral colour is brightly lit. The fifth is an abrupt jolt into the light
with tremendous brightness of mood, and the Brooklyn Boys’ Chorus sound like
street urchins! The problem comes at the start of the finale, which begins
in interminable, dragging slowness. However the intensity of the string playing
is incredible and the final pages are searing, sweeping away any doubts I
might have had.
Back in the Concertgebouw, the Fourth has wonderful recorded sound and you
can hear the orchestral detail with remarkable clarity. Bernstein captures
the innocence and quiet darkness of the first two movements and there is gorgeous
warmth in the third, but his decision to use a boy treble in the finale is
just perverse and shows the conductor at his most wilful. The whole point
of this movement is that it is imagined innocence, and a boy’s voice just
sounds wrong.
The Sixth begins well with a march rhythm that is savage in its intensity.
There is even an element of agitation in the central “cow bell” interlude
which here brings little peace. The Andante (coming third) pours oil on the
troubled waters of the Scherzo’s mania and, again at an expansive tempo, convinces
as one of Mahler’s most profound utterances. The opening of the finale carries
great breadth but not as much scale as I had expected, though the sense of
the epic definitely develops as the movement goes on. The hammer blows (three
of them) are devastating, as is the delirium they unleash, though all told
this symphony has a less convincing reading than one might have hoped for.
The slow tempo for the opening of the Seventh lends bounding energy to the
Allegro when it arrives but there is a beautiful stillness for the central
interlude. The ending is clamorous and fundamentally optimistic. The first
Nachtmusik is full of light and shade with expertly played solo contributions,
and you really get the feeling that Bernstein is enjoying himself for the
first trio section. The scherzo is dark but not especially threatening and
the second Nachtmusik has well played solos but lacks humour. However, the
ebullient, eclectic finale could well have been written for this conductor’s
personality, and the closing bars seem to embrace the vulgarity enthusiastically.
The Eighth has long been recognised, with a degree of truth, as a weak link.
The conductor died before the planned new recording in New York was to take
place, so instead DG had to trawl the archives to find a radio recording from
the 1975 Salzburg Festival. Too many factors militate against this recording,
not least the boxy, often foggy sound which comes dangerously close to distortion
at the climaxes. It is also here where the live-ness of the occasion does
least good and most harm, such as in scrappy ensemble or sledge-hammer direction.
The female soloists are good but the men often sound distinctly uncomfortable,
especially tenor Kenneth Riegel. For a real glimpse into what Bernstein could
have achieved here, go to the DVD of the similar cast, recorded on DG and
excellently directed by Humphrey Burton.
Many critics have great problems with Bernstein’s 1985 Concertgebouw recording
of the Ninth but I am not one of them. True, Bernstein’s finest recording
of this work is his 1979 live recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, the
only occasion on which he conducted them. Happily this has recently been reissued
on one CD as a DG Original and it demands to be heard, in spite of its imperfections.
Don’t dismiss the 1985 version, though: it’s far from perfect but has a lot
to recommend it. The vast Andante comodo feels expansive and well paced, and
Bernstein manages the transitions through consolation and tragedy very effectively,
though the final collapse at the end of the “development” (if you can call
it that) is not as total as it should be. The horn soloist plays beautifully.
The swaggering clumsiness of the Ländler is unsettling while remaining witty
and the Concertgebouw trombones have a great time attacking their lines. The
Rondo Burleske crackles with intensity but has a radiantly still central section.
The finale is controversial (“protracted and pulseless” according to David
Gutman) but I still found it utterly involving and never did I find it indulgent
or wilful. In fact the final bars moved me immensely.
The Vienna recording of the Tenth’s Adagio is a good bonus for the hugely
expansive arch of the string playing in the main theme. The famous nine-note
chord grates violently, though at the end of the movement the tone is fundamentally
upbeat.
So where does this stand in the overall pantheon of Mahler cycles? Well, in
spite of its virtues I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone coming to Mahler for
the first time. What you hear is Mahler refracted through Bernstein. True,
that is the case every time a conductor conducts, but with Lennie this process
of interpretation means more than for most. Uniquely distinctive as these
interpretations are, they’re for people who already know and have opinions
about Mahler’s music. Only then can you really get a handle on the unique
slant that Bernstein puts on this music, for better or for worse. He sometimes
exaggerates the markings to the brink of perversity in order to make his point,
but when Bernstein gets it right he really gets it right and the music takes
off in his hands in a way that no other conductor manages. In fact I would
suggest that the dynamism and innovation of later Mahler interpreters like
Rattle would have been much more difficult without the trail that Bernstein
has blazed. Solti or Chailly, both on Decca, remain top recommendations for
a cycle which is safe but still by turns exciting, and Rattle’s collection
of performances – not a cycle, he insists – has fantastic things to say, but
for some challenge and excitement in this great music it is this set I will
come back to.
Many will wonder how this set compares to Bernstein’s earlier
Sony set. I found the readings to be remarkably consistent. His interpretations
seem to have changed little over the years, save a few minor exceptions. That
Sony set will always be hugely significant being, as it was, the first complete
Mahler set to be issued, but despite the much-hyped re-mastering of the Sony
set, the DG sound is consistently far better, even in the flawed Eighth. It
also has the advantage that it is available on fewer discs and at a lower cost
than ever before and so for me it gets an enthusiastic thumbs up. This is a
hugely dynamic achievement that deserves to be appreciated, warts and all.
Simon Thompson
A hugely dynamic achievement that deserves to be appreciated, warts and all.
... see Full Review
Detailed contents list
CD 1 [81:10]
Symphony No. 1
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (rec. October 1987)
Symphony No. 2 (1st mvt)
CD 2 [68:45]
Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” (mvts 2-5)
Barbara Hendricks (soprano)
Christa Ludwig (alto)
The Westminster Choir
New York Philharmonic (rec. April 1987)
CD 3 [60:04]
Symphony No. 3 (mvts 1-3)
CD 4 [79:13]
Symphony No. 3 (mvts 4-6)
Christa Ludwig (alto)
Brooklyn Boys’ Chorus
New York Choral Artists
New York Philharmonic (rec. November 1987)
Symphony No. 6 (mvts 1-2)
CD 5 [79:30]
Symphony No. 6 (mvts 3-4)
Vienna Philharmonic (rec. September 1988)
Symphony No. 9 (1st mvt)
CD 6 [59:05]
Symphony No. 9 (mvts 2-4)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (rec. June 1985)
CD 7 [75:03]
Symphony No. 5
Vienna Philharmonic (rec. September 1987)
CD 8 [64:05]
Symphony No. 7 (mvts 1-4)
CD 9 [75:32]
Symphony No. 7 (finale)
New York Philharmonic (rec. December 1985)
Symphony No. 4
Helmut Wittek (boy treble)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (rec. June 1987)
CD 10 [50:26]
Symphony No. 10: Adagio
Vienna Philharmonic (rec. October 1974)
Symphony No. 8 (Part 1)
CD 11 [59:03]
Symphony No. 8 (Part 2)
Margaret Price, Judith Blegen, Gerti Zeumer (soprano)
Trudeliese Schmidt, Agnes Baltsa (alto)
Kenneth Riegel (tenor)
Hermann Prey (baritone)
Jose Van Dam (bass)
Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Wiener Singverein
Wiener Sängerknaben
Vienna Philharmonic (rec. Salzburg Festival, August 1975)