Mahler: Symphony No. 2

Mahler: Symphony No. 2

Mahler: Symphony No. 2
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CD Details

Edition: Music CD
Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
CD Release Date: 2004-11-09
Music Label: Sfs Media
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Symphony No. 2 in C minor ('Resurrection'): 1st Movement: Allegro maestoso
Music CD 2
  1. Symphony No. 2 in C minor ('Resurrection'): 2nd Movement: Andante moderato
  2. Symphony No. 2 in C minor ('Resurrection'): 3rd Movement: In ruhig fliessender bewegung
  3. Symphony No. 2 in C minor ('Resurrection'): 4th Movement: 'urlicht': Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht
  4. Symphony No. 2 in C minor ('Resurrection'): 5th Movement: Finale-Im Tempo des Scherzos...
  5. Symphony No. 2 in C minor ('Resurrection'): 5th Movement: Chorus: 'Aufersteh'n'

Music reviews of Mahler: Symphony No. 2

Music Review: * * 1/2 stars -- Mushy Mahler, recording sounds compressed
Rating: 2 Stars

"Mahler ist nicht fur Kinder." --William Steinberg, hearing MTT conducting Mahler

What's most surprising to me about hearing this concert on CD is that I was there. I attended one of the performances used to make this disc. Somehow the live event was more thrilling than what came out on this CD. I know it's hard to capture the full impact of a Mahler 2. I also know that "being there" adds a certain thrill. Nevertheless, while I noted some of these shortcomings at the concert itself, they seem to bother me more on the recording.

One of the things that bothers me most is the way MTT really elongates the tempi. This is easily the slowest Mahler 2 I've ever encountered on record. But it's not because of extreme contrasts between slow and fast sections. *Much* of the performance is slow--too slow and de-li-ber-ate--and often the structure crumbles in MTT's hands. For just one example, the first theme in the first movement doesn't have nearly enough tension and build, so that when the cor anglais second theme emerges (*beautifully* played by Julie Ann Giocobassi, by the way) it's not a "respite" from anything. The whole first movement never really gets off the ground, so that there's no dramatic contrast between it and the bucolic second movement--which is to be so strikingly different, remember, that Mahler wanted five full minutes' pause. Compare Rattle, Walter, Bernstein, and Abbado, among many others, for logic, architecture, build, just sheer excitement. The second movement contains some of Thomas' worst conducting on record, with him doing absolutely nothing with the second staccato theme that starts in the high strings. The strings just bow the repeated phrases in unison without any shaping. The very Yiddish third movement in the Phrygian mode doesn't sound very Yiddish or very Phrygian in the hands of MTT, where he blows through it very briskly without acknowledging any of the good humor. (For the life of me I don't remember it being that way in concert.) Urlicht is the first high point, with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson singing gorgeously and with so much of the emotional range missing from MTT's rather repressed reading. Finally in the last movement things get exciting. Suddenly we have the huge contrasts in dynamics and tempi that Mahler demands (though more in dynamics than tempi--Tilson Thomas rarely gets beyond medium-slow in this interpretation). The chorus is superb, maybe the best I've heard on record. The soprano, Isabel Bayrakdarian, last heard on the soundtrack to the second "Lord of the Rings" movie, is awful--with a small, colorless voice that sounded as unimpressive live as it does on this CD. But she is very pretty and young and thin, and Ms. Hunt Lieberson is older and plump and plain, so guess who got the bigger applause at the concert?

Some interesting discrepancies: the offstage brass on the CD are flawless. In the concert I attended they fell apart at their first entrance in the last movement, that section being a true train wreck. Such are the dangers of a live performance! And the organ at the end is much louder on the CD than it was live, where it was barely audible, even though I was sitting rather close to the pipes. However, even on the CD it is muffled and indistinct, and in fact the whole final episode is somewhat "tubby."

Curiously, the sound throughout this CD is compressed. I can understand why the soft sections were pumped up a bit--to squash audience noise--but why are the loudest parts flattened? Just compare the brass fortissimos on Rattle or Bernstein or Haitink to this CD to see what I mean. It was louder in concert, that's for sure. And listen to how "pinched" the brass section in particular sounds in the fortissimo sections. I'm sure they were using unidirectional mikes to keep as much extraneous noise off the recording as possible; still, DG does this kind of recording all the time these days, and they do a better job of it than is evidenced here. Perhaps it has something to do with this being a hybrid SACD: maybe some sort of data compression had to be used to fit everything onto the discs. Or maybe there was lots of overdubbing (the trumpets from night two mixed with the strings from night five, with the winds from night three, etc.). Or maybe the beauty of tone of the SFSO just isn't comparable to the best European Orchestras--even at the concert I noted a certain blatty quality to the brass, especially the trumpets; they sounded raggety. Compare Rattle for volume with control. Whatever the reason, this is not an epic Mahler 2nd, and "epic" is written into the pages, obviously.

But more frustrating is MTT's slow ponderousness. He makes every moment in this performance a "big moment," while paradoxically not really coming up with any big insight at all. He just seems to think slow tempi and reverence equates with profound. Sometimes I feel like he's up there saying, "Look at *me,* conducting Mahler. The big leagues!" But despite the handling with kid gloves, the overly-reverential (almost sentimental) approach, he doesn't really come up with a new angle to a work that--hate to say it--is starting to almost become a warhorse, or at least very very familiar. Just as the last generation tested their mettle on a Beethoven symphony cycle, Mahler's symphonies seem to be the proving ground for this generation, and I personally get the feeling MTT is going about this cycle and recording it with audio and video for posterity mainly to vault himself up there into the realm of the conductors of legend. I say that in part because, from a musical standpoint alone, this CD and indeed this whole MTT Mahler cycle has been totally unnecessary. The conductor clearly has nothing new to say, even though he has spent a great big chunk of an oil barron's money to say it. But there's really no reason to recommend the present recording with Rattle, Bernsteins I and II, Haitink, Scherchen, Walter, Klemperer and Kubelik available. Just off the top of my head. Still, there is one compelling reason to buy this CD: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. May she rest in peace.

(March 14, 2010 - This past weekend MTT performed another 2nd at Davies Symphony Hall, and I can report from my seat in the first tier that this was a far better performance than the one offered up on the present CD. Many of the problems that mar the recording--unfocused playing, especially in the first movement, draggy tempi, thin strings, lack of accents, and a general overindulgent quality--were reduced or eliminated last night. The first movement had more focus, and although he still tried that Furtwanglerian suspension of tempi in the first movement's contrasting second theme, he pulled it off better. The off-stage brass didn't crack half their notes, the scherzo had more of a lilt and a sardonic bite, and the organ roared at the end. Actually, I've never heard the very last fortissimo chord brought off with more clarity, either live or on record! [Rattle is particularly sloppy here; his orchestra does not stop together.] And while mezzo Katarina Karnéus was not quite as compelling as Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, soprano Laura Claycomb was far better than Isabel Bayrakdarian. Unfortunately, I doubt the SFSO will be issuing another M2 on disc, which is too bad, because this time Tilson-Thomas got it mostly right.)
More Mahler: Symphony No. 2 free music reviews:
1 2 3

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