Mahler: Symphony No. 5
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Composer: Gustav MahlerConductor: Leonard Bernstein
Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-02-13
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Product features:
- BERNSTEIN LEONARD / WIENER P. O. MAHLER: SYMP. N. 5
- 1. Trauermarsch In Gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie Ein Kondukt
- 2. Sturmisch Bewegt. Mit Grosster Vehemenz
- 3. Scherzo. Kraftig, Nicht Zu Schnell
- 4. Adagietto. Sehr Langsam
- 5. Rondo-Finale. Allegro-Allegro Giocoso. Frisch
Music reviews of Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Music Review: Epic or self-regarding? Both, probably - but it works
Rating: 5 Stars
In many ways it is possible to recycle the same argument about Bernstein's interpretative choices with regard to a good many of his recorded performances. What for some sounds wilful, disjointed and self-conscious is for others exceptionally fluent and flexible. To some, Bernstein is constantly hovering on the brink of virtual stasis; for others, he achieves a timeless intensity of expression. I must say that listening to the way he attacks and develops the stormy, "Streng" section of the first movement nine minutes in, I cannot agree that the music lacks passion or momentum; I find myself swept along by the grandeur of the playing by the peerless Vienna Philharmonic. Bernstein knows what he is about and finds more drama in every phrase; the playing is always weighty, detailed and marvellously precise.
The sound is wonderfully full; the audience must have been bound and gagged throughout or simply as spellbound by what they were hearing as were the audience I was in last night when Gergiev and the LSO held us rapt in the closing minutes of the Ninth. I swear that his peculiar trick of imposing his personality on Mahler's music sometimes makes me hear a kind of American jauntiness emerging through the folksy Ländler in the Scherzo. Of course he theatrical Bernstein understood how to manipulate the subtle rhythms of a Viennese waltz to create charm and tension; metronomic regularity is kicked into touch but the orchestra follows his every nuance. The Adagietto ("little Adagio", not by any means "slightly slowly") is by no means so etiolated compared with many another celebrated version; it is a more passionate and warm-blooded take on the score which capitalises on the capability of the Vienna strings to emit a burnished glow rather than another of the "suspended animation" variety whereby the music just hovers in the ether. The last movement is just one great, arching, bustling burst of contrapuntal energy. Every time I think Bernstein is on the brink of indulgence, the music takes on an intensity and drive that disarms my criticism.
This is by no means the only way to play this music; safer, and in many ways just as satisfying, "straight" recommendations might be Shipway's or Barshai's bargain accounts (see my reviews) but Bernstein was a master Mahlerian whose interpretations were always valid unless you are a modern "Mahler lite" devotee.
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Description of Mahler: Symphony No. 5
BERNSTEIN LEONARD / WIENER P. O. MAHLER: SYMP. N. 5Classical CDs
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