With the best will in the world I’m not really sure I see the
point of this disc, which seems to me to be a rather bits-and-pieces
programme and not terribly satisfying.
There is one interesting link between two of the pieces, in the
shape of Benjamin Britten. As Michael Kennedy points out in his
characteristically interesting note, Britten became an enthusiast
for Mahler’s music after attending a performance of the Fourth
Symphony when he was aged seventeen. Indeed, there’s a live recording
of Britten conducting that very symphony in 1961 and I share Tony
Duggan’s enthusiasm for it (see
review).
I was interested to learn from Mr. Kennedy’s note that Britten
conducted the first modern performance of ‘Blumine’ as a stand-alone
piece at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1967. ‘Blumine’ was the second
movement in the original five-movement version of Mahler’s First
Symphony, but he excised it in 1896. It was not until 1968 that
the five-movement version of the symphony was heard again. The
‘Blumine’ movement is occasionally included in recordings and
performances of the symphony nowadays – though it’s more usual
to hear it by itself. Personally, I find it an attractive, if
rather slender and slight composition and I certainly wouldn’t
wish to hear it impeding the flow of the familiar four-movement
score. The best solution, perhaps, is that adopted by Sir Simon
Rattle, who prefaced his EMI recording of the First Symphony by
playing ‘Blumine’. That leaves listeners free to programme their
CD player according to choice.
Järvi conducts a perfectly acceptable performance of ‘Blumine’
and the same verdict applies to his traversal of the excerpt from
Mahler’s Third Symphony. This is a rarity of passing interest;
an arrangement for small orchestra made by Britten in 1941, during
his American sojourn. Frankly, there’s little more than curiosity
value in this but, in fairness to Britten, it should be remembered
that in 1941 opportunities to hear Mahler’s huge score were rare
– Boult conducted the UK première six years later, in 1947.
The other two offerings are much more substantial. The Adagio
of the Tenth Symphony was one of two performable movements left
by Mahler when he died. As is well known, in the 1960s the scholar
Deryck Cooke made a performing version of the full score. Since
then there have been some other rival editions but none has really
challenged the hegemony of the Cooke version. Cooke’s edition
– never claimed by him as more than a performing version of the
sketches – has been accepted by many conductors but, presumably,
not by Paavo Järvi. As I made clear when I
reviewed
Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording recently, I’m unrepentantly
in the Cooke camp. This is another decent performance – in fact,
it’s probably the best and most convincing one on the disc. The
orchestra plays well and Järvi’s control and shaping is impressive,
without quite rivalling the best exponents of this symphony. But
one is left with the question: why stop there? Indeed, that’s
an opinion that Michael Kennedy seems to share for he concludes
his note with the following statement: “If it [the Adagio] was
all we had of this symphony it would satisfy. But what follows
completes a masterpiece.” Quite so.
The opening item on Järvi’s programme is
Totenfeier. This
was the original first movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony and
its composition dates back to about 1888. He added the title
Totenfeier
(‘Funeral Rite’) in 1891 but in 1894, before the symphony had
been completed, he composed a revised version of the first movement
in the form that we know it today.
Totenfeier was then
forgotten until quite recently and Michael Kennedy tells us that
when Mahler played a movement bearing this title in a concert
of his music in Berlin in 1896, the year following the première
of the Second Symphony it was in fact the revised version, taken
from the complete symphony, that was played.
In the last few years there have been a couple of recordings.
The one which I’ve heard was made in 1999 by Riccardo Chailly
and was issued as part of his complete Mahler cycle, coupled with
his recording of the complete Second Symphony (see
review).
Structurally
Totenfeier is pretty similar to the first
movement of the Second Symphony. However, listeners who are familiar
with the symphony will notice many differences of scoring and
a few instances where bars were either added or deleted by Mahler
during the revision. These differences are interesting but I have
to say that in every respect Mahler’s second thoughts seem to
me to be infinitely preferable.
Järvi’s performance is somewhat disappointing, I think. The main
criticism I’d have is that he relaxes excessively in the slower,
more nostalgic episodes, such as the passage between 2:39 and
3:29. Indeed, the music almost becomes becalmed at one point (track
1 6:34 – 10:10) where Järvi’s slow speed not only makes the music
sound laboured but also he then has to pick up speed quite rapidly
in a way that seems unidiomatic; one wonders how often he’s conducted
the full symphony. This tendency to linger excessively largely
explains why his performance clocks in at 26:36, whereas the altogether
tauter Chailly performance lasts for 23:10. Chailly also has several
other things going for him. One is the fabulous playing of the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a band with the music of Mahler
in its collective DNA. Furthermore, they’re recorded in the superb
acoustic of the Concertgebouw, where the Decca engineers achieved
some fine results. And finally, I think Chailly is a much better
– perhaps more experienced? - Mahler conductor. If one must have
a recording of this early Mahler draft – which certainly is not
devoid of interest – then the Chailly version is the one to have
and his coupling, as an appendix to the Second Symphony, is much
more logical.
Throughout this programme the playing of the Frankfurt orchestra
and the recorded sound are good, if not quite of top-notch quality.
Järvi’s conducting is efficient but on this evidence he’s not
exceptional as a Mahler conductor. The disc is of modest interest
as a collection of Mahler fragments but I wouldn’t regard it as
an essential purchase. Frankly, this is not a disc that set my
pulse racing.
John Quinn
see also review by Ralph
Moore
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi 
