World Famous Comics: Mahler: Symphony No. 5 [Hybrid SACD]
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 [Hybrid SACD]
From: San Francisco Sym Average Rating: Binding: Audio CD Format: Hybrid SACD, Import Label: San Francisco Sym Number of Discs: 1 Release Date: October 10, 2006
Amazon.com: Although in a letter to his wife Mahler expressed doubts about what the public would make of his Fifth Symphony, it has become one of his most popular works. As always, he kept revising it for several years; the final version, heard here, was not published until 1964. Cast in five movements, it opens with a heavy, achingly mournful Funeral March, heralded by a recurring trumpet signal. The next movement, though thematically related, is its opposite: fast, "stormy," grotesque, calling for "utmost vehemence." The Symphony's center of gravity is the third and longest movement, an unusually weighty Scherzo. Driving and rambunctious, with a tenderly lyrical Trio, it stomps, dances and swings. In complete contrast to the preceding violence and massive orchestration, the famous Adagietto is the Symphony's shortest but most profoundly affecting movement. Scored only for strings and harp, it feels like an oasis of sonic and emotional calm. The Finale brings another surprise: humorous, gracious, playful, it recalls previously heard material (as well as some of Mahler's songs) and ends in a burst of laughter. Recorded live, this performance has great vitality, freedom, and color - even the enharmonic shifts are enhanced by making the flat keys dark and the sharp keys bright. However, it suffers from a few excesses: the tempo changes are good but too frequent and there is a lot of push-and-pull. The pianissimos are barely audible, the fortissimos ear-splitting; the texture gets muddy in the loud sections. The Adagietto is inordinately slow and falls apart with big ritards and long pauses. However, the playing is exciting and expressive, and the soloists are wonderful. --Edith Eisler
Immaculate Mahler: Michael Tilson Thomas' Well-Ordered "Universe" In terms of performance practice, Mahler interpretations probably carry more baggage than those of any other composer; our discussions of Mahler performances invariably involve references to this or that conductor's interpretation. Michael Tilson Thomas seems to be trying to get away from all that, with what I can only describe as an immaculate reading of Mahler's 5th Symphony.
Mahler famously said that a symphony should contain "the entire universe"; in that sense, Michael Tilson Thomas' Mahlerian universe is a very well-ordered one indeed. Critics often remark on MTT's uncanny command of orchestral balance, and this asset serves him well on this recording. One hears details of Mahler's orchestration here that simply do not come through on previous recordings, even those by MTT's greatest successors. Certainly this is helped by the pristine sound here, but credit should be given where it's due, and in this case the conductor deserves it for bringing out some of the finer nuances of instrumentation.
This exemplary control of Mahler's textures is coupled with an admirable ability to shape articulations with grace and clarity. Indeed, MTT's handling of fast-running sixteenth notes in the third movement and the symphony's final fugue demonstrates an almost classical poise. These instances are emblematic of MTT's broader approach, which, to my ear, seems to be a concerted attempt to clear away the dross of the past century's interpretations, to move Mahler out of the shadow of Bernstein, Haitink, Klemperer, et. al., and into the light of a new century.
However, by distancing himself from the excesses of the traditional Romantic interpretations, Tilson Thomas may have lost the thread of Mahlerian syntax that goes back arguably to Mahler himself. What's missing from this otherwise exquisite performance is the sheer pathos that we have come to expect from any Mahlerian outing, that sense of reckless abandon that drove Bernstein's best forays in the genre and has allowed for truly transcendental moments on the great historic recordings.
Michael Tilson Thomas' reading is as straightforward as can reasonably be expected; indeed, one could argue that the conductor has taken a somewhat revolutionary approach simply by following Mahler's notoriously meticulous score markings to the letter, without allowing his own personality to enter the picture. This is not to say that MTT's reading is devoid of vitality. On the contrary, strict fidelity to Mahler's indications provides excitement enough (and the excellent sound helps to convey this). But, ultimately, I think Mahler demands more than this. More than Mozart or Brahms, Ravel or Prokofiev, indeed, more than even Beethoven himself, I think that Mahler demands, like pagan idols of old, a "blood sacrifice".
I anticipate listening to this recording many, many times, and I can highly recommend it as an important contribution to the list of worthy Mahler interpretations. But it should probably be coupled with a more traditional Romantic reading. MTT's recording will allow you to see Mahler's 5th in a clear focus, but other recordings will offer a more panoramic view.
To the top, but not over it I'll be blunt: This recording is marvelous!
I find it odd to read so many almost disparaging reviews calling this a flat and emotionless performance. Some reviews even cite far inferior recordings as a basis for comparison.
There are a number of fine recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic, including those of Karajan, Abbado, and Haitink (my personal favorite, though the recorded sound is a bit bright). To me, however, Berlin's playing has never been what I would call precise, and Simon Rattle is simply out of his league. His recording of the 5th is completely devoid of imagination, and certainly not worthy of being compared to first tier recordings.
Solti's earlier recording with the CSO is almost embarrassing, and even the later recording's lack of precision is only balanced out by the sheer power and drive of the brass section.
What MTT achieves in this recording is basically a conglomeration of what is good in every other recording while simulateously removing the undesirable qualities. Rhythm is clear, textures are well defined, the recorded sound is good. Overall though, the recorded sound does not equal that of others in this series, particularly the Third.
My one criticism might be that the architecture of the piece seems a little too thought out, perhaps too studied. But even this isn't to the point where it lacks imagination, but only a certain amount of spontenaity.
The first movement is not as sinister as some, but makes up for it in precision and dark brass sound. The second movement is not as driven as perhaps it could be, but less drive here equals clearer textures. The third movement dances nicely, but never quite makes it to the extremes of contrast. The fourth flows beautifully, never lingers over itself, but also never matches the flowing string playing of Berlin with Karajan or Abbado. Like the second movement, the fifth movement also never really takes off, but it never becomes the tangled jumble that traps even the best interpretations.
In short, this recording has earned 5 stars from its own merits, and certainly deserves the highest consideration.
A lyrical, refined Mahler Fifth, one of MTT's best efforts Michael Tilson Thomas can come off as a lightweight who skates over the surface of a score without plunging into its emotional depths. But to turn that accusation on its head, he is a refined musician with a sense of detail and delicacy rather than power and drama. The ideal Mahler conductor needs to possess both halves. A shortage of visceral impact has made me shy away from MTT's Mahler cycle, but this Fifth is stunning. The recorded sound alone qualifies for raves--I've never heard such naturalness and warmth in the Fifth. But more importantly, the Mahler Fifth suits this conductor's temperament.
The music operates between extremes, ecstatic storming of the heavens and funereal gloom, manic outbursts and hushed quiescence. Its extremism tempts conductors to bombard us with garish effects or to twist the musical line into contortions to prove how profoundly affected they are. MTT takes the course of moderation, and where Barenboim, for instance, tortures the score with crude over-statement, Tilson Thomas takes every opportunity to point out the delicacy of quiet passages. Add to this the alert, sensitive playing of the SFSO, and the chemistry works--I paid attention from beginning to end. (For those who keep tabs, the Adagietto takes 10:48 min. here and is performed without overtones of grief. MTT extracts a dreamy wistfulness that is quite lovely.)
Good as tis CD is, Mahler has inspired other great eprformances that transcend this one, from Karajan, Barshai, Abbado, Barbirolli, and the all but forgotten Sir Rudolf Schwarz, a Nazi-era emigre who made a career in London and whose Mahler Fifth on Everest is the performance of a lifetime.
MTT, SFSO, Mahler 5: Big, Songful, Hearty, Operatic My first conscious exposure to the possibility that Mahler could be played as opera was probably the stereo era recording of the 2nd symphony, committed to disc by Stokowski leading the LSO. From first note to last the whole grand thing simply rang out - clarion. Bel canto.
I recalled that Stokowski revelation while listening to this MTT reading of the Mahler Fifth.
Some touchstones for recorded comparisons: I have long treasured Mahler 5th Symphonies by the likes of: (1) Wyn Morris (Symphonica of London), (2) Rudolf Barshai (Neue Junge Deutsche Philharmonie-coupled with an equally stunning Tenth Symphony), (3) Sir John Barbirolli (New Phlharmonia), (4) Herbert von Karajan (BerlinPO), (5) Pierre Boulez (ViennaPO - another welcome surprise), (6) Michael Gielen (SWRSO), (7) Gary Bertini (CologneRSO), (8) Lorin Maazel (ViennaPO), and (9) Giuseppe Sinopoli (Philharmonia).
Yes, some famous and some newer names are missing so far from my open-ended fav list. I just haven't warmed to these yet. If I have even heard some of them.
Among the prior recordings, the MTT reading comes nearest - though not all that near in the end - to the Sinopoli reading. Both charmed and surprised me by treating this often gnarly-seeming symphony as Bel Canto Song. The greatest contrast is with Barshai, Gielen, and Bertini who in different ways engage more severely with the immense (in all senses of the word) polyphony of this work. Having such a viable range of interpretations is fascinating in itself, but efforts to find new things in a familiar piece of music can be failures, irritating, unconvincing on repeated plays.
Not so this MTT Mahler Fifth. It seems to be getting faint praise from many listeners. Not so from me.
The first trumpet notes put a hearer on notice that this will all be Bel Canto. Yes Lucia goes mad in the last act, kills her politically-driven husband, and Enrico knifes himself after a glorious farewell aria upon hearing that Lucia is dead as the cortege bears her tragically young body forth into the countryside of Scotland by way of Italy. But nothing ceases to be lyrical just because it is dramatic, or even melodramatic. Many great moments of symphonic polyphony achieve such flowing and flexible ensemble that, again, one tends to forget JS Bach, thinking of all the great opera trios, quartets, and quintets. There is nothing in MTT"s performance that is not still genuine Mahler, and yet Bellini and Donizetti stand applauding as it were, vigorously in the wings.
The third movement made famous by Visconti's film use of it is essentially song, too. The breathing phrases, glinted and inflected with rubato, reminds us of those vulnerable dimensions of real human hearts, instead of being inflated as large (or as dramatically) as possible. The old saw about Clemens Krauss' approach to conducting Richard Strauss (Epic but bloated) has no place here.
The Finale is our emergence back into the kaleidoscopic bright sunshine and bustle of the wide world. It shows quite a definite sense of humor. SACD booklet annotator Michael Steinberg puts the well-being of the Finale in context, opining that Mahler is willing to end this symphony with what he terms, a shout of laughter. By the end, I am willing to agree that this symphony is bursting with more sunshine and affirmation of life than I have typically wanted to hear in my fav versions. I am not exactly willing to throw all the other, darker readings out, but I can welcome this more positive view, too.
Let me wrap up by discussing sound. I have heard this performance in superaudio surround sound. My system seems decent enough, with a Sony SACD player pushing signal out to five Definitive Tech floor speakers, through a B&K preamp and Bryston power amps. That is, I think I have had a decent chance to evaluate the audio without my system unduly getting in the way.
If you have been attending live concerts lately in the re-balanced acoustics of Davies Hall in SF, you will surely recognize the truth of the recording the moment you hear it in all channels. So far as I can tell, the engineers have used a minimalist mike set-up in all the MTT Mahler recordings to date. They set the rig and let it go. No spotlight miking. No artificial editing to re-balance instrumental sections or solos. What you hear is consistent right through the performance, despite a series of live concerts being edited together to comprise the SACD master.
The dynamic range is typically greater than ordinary 16-bit CD. Loud to soft simply expands in dimension via SACD, with tangible gains in full frequency clarity, warmth, and resonating air around the music that mostly tends to enhance tonal depth while locating sound even more vividly in the recorded venue. I can indeed think of SACD's which I hear as falling off the charts on the pppppp ends of the spectrum - Rostropovich's Shostakovich Eleventh with the LSO in SACD, and Zander's nearly sonically invisible posthorn soloist in his reading of the Mahler Third, do come to mind. But this MTT outing is not marred by this sort of SACD engineering failure.
If you want the contrasting approach to this symphony that emphasizes polyphony and counterpoint textures, with plenty of fire and urgent impetus, you could hardly do better than the Rudolf Barshai 2-disc set on Brilliance, with that conductor leading the astounding Junge Deutsch Philharmonie in Barshai's completion of the Tenth Symphony, too. But in its own ways, according to its own sung sense, this MTT+SFSO approach breathes and dances and exemplifies a high level of operatic ensemble; if the Fifth has heretofore sounded a bit too lugubrious or dark to you, this may become one of your favs. Otherwise, like a live concert reading of the Bruckner Fifth wherein Blomstedt and SFSO shed entirely Schubertian light on that gnarly score, this performance is content to stake out its own interpretive territory.
Pouring oil on the waves ... The Michael Tilson Thomas Mahler cycle with the San Fransisco Symphony Orchestra is now nearing completion with a generally satisfying reading of the Fifth Symphony. The whole cycle will in a whole and on itself make a nice little stack of colorful, nicely polished, technically outstanding performances. Most of the time the playing is distinctive, with smooth ensemble playing, sometimes 'rising above the notes' in wonderful performances. Up to now, I find the First, Sixth and Seventh stand out as especially excellent. But however gorgeous the sound and however beautifully polished and refined the ensemble playing, I find that these performances sometimes gloss over too much, or better: do not evoke enough, the anxiety and raw emotion - the sense of 'heart and nerves laid bare'. This is especially the case here, I think, with this recording of the Fifth Symphony, where as a result of going for a beautiful sound and for smooth ensemble playing, I think maybe too much oil is poured on the waves ... Especially in Mahler's Fifth, the conductor should stress the outrageousness of this music, where different voices in the orchestra are constanly vying (as in: shouting, crying, pleading ...) for attention, almost independently from each other sometimes. The Adagietto, when we have finally arrived there, doesn't at all feel like the logically and emotionally needed (contrastingly different) 'arrival after much turmoil'. And above this, the orchestral playing as such leaves me quite cold here also, which is a shame. Although I must say that it does sound very tender here, so I am cast to doubt again ... (And appreciation of the Adagietto does't have anything to do with the tempo, because in one of my favorite recordings of the symphony, namely the one by Benjamin Zander on Telarc, the same piece is quite a bit (more than 2 minutes) faster [8:33], but it does make the heart strings of this particular listener resonate.) Also, the Part II Scherzo isn't as dizzyingly mesmerizing as should be, I believe. Maybe also because it is played a bit slowly here (taking up more than 19 minutes) and without much tension, too relaxed (like the whole of Part I as well, actually), after which the emotionally dry Adagietto almost feels a bit gratuitous, I am sorry to say (because it is quite a pity). This performance misses out something on the 'soul' of this music. At no point does this recording really 'lift off' and come alive as many other recordings of this symphony (or, for that matter, as other recordings in this cycle), like (among others) the ones by Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic (1947), Benjamin Zander and the Philharmonia Orchestra (2000) and Bernard Haitink's zestful live-recording with the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Eurovision Christmas Matinee concert, 1986). I believe that this recording does fit in nicely with the rest of the Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Mahler cycle and as such it is a safe buy for collectors (of which I am certainly one). But on itself it is not at all a prime recommendation for this recording, however gorgeous the orchestral playing and the recording as such. (Be warned though, that there is a little glitch/wobble in the sound of the stereo-layer of this CD at [5:03] during the 5th movement - a pity and a shame, especially for this kind of money). For that it just sounds too uninvolved emotionally, lacking tragedy, tension and drama. Maybe the conductor is on an altogether different plane of thought here, like in his recording of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, which - notwithstanding the music's heavy connotations of leave-taking - breathes a same kind of 'emotional detachment' as this recording of the Fifth. This may be a result of some unique vision, I don't know, but I'm afraid I do not really follow here - at least, not for the moment. Anyway, this recording does take a bit to get used to (and maybe a whole different mind-set), compared with what I am used to and with what I love and have come to expect with this music. But maybe I'll start to like it more and more during years to come, when a recording, so to say, 'grows on you', which can indeed happen sometimes. So for the moment I can only listen and learn (this complex music does of course need intellectual engagement as much as emotional evolvement), and hope that the effort and money will ultimately be well spent ;-)
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