Mahler's Symphony No. 8

Mahler's Symphony No. 8

Mahler's Symphony No. 8
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CD Details

Orchestra: Seattle Symphony
Composer: Gustav Mahler
Conductor: Gerard Schwarz
Edition: Music CD
Audio: German (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2009-05-07
Music Label: Seattle Symphony
Soundtracks:
  1. Veni, creator spiritus
  2. Imple superna gratia
  3. Infirma nostri corporis
  4. Accende lumen sensibus
  5. Veni, creator spiritus
  6. Gloria Patri Domino
  7. Waldung, sie schwankt heran
  8. Ewiger Wonnebrand
  9. Wie Felsenabgrund mir zu Fussen
  10. Gerettet ist das edle Glied
  11. Uns Bleibt ein Erdenrest
  12. Hier ist die Aussicht frei
  13. Hochste Herrscherin der Welt
  14. Dir, der Unberuhrbaren
  15. Bei der Liebe, die den Fussen
  16. Neige, neige du Ohnegleiche
  17. Blikket auf, alle reuig Zarten
  18. Alles Vergangliche

Music reviews of Mahler's Symphony No. 8

Music Review: SeattleSO, Choral, Seattle Pro Musica, Northwest Boy Choir, Soloists: Mahler Sym 8: Top-Notch, Mid-Hall Sound, Live Concerts Mix
Rating: 5 Stars

Here is a recent new release from Seattle Symphony's own house label. It captures a tremendously successful reading of the Mahler Eighth Symphony, taken from live concerts on September 25, and 28, in 2008. The engineer and producer was Dimitriy Lipay. Choruses are two, the Seattle Pro Musica, and the Seattle Symphony Chorale. Add in, Northwest Boy Choir. Add in three soprano soloists, Lauren Flanagan, Jane Eaglen, and Jane Giering-De Haan. Vinson Cole revisits his role as tenor, Doctor Marianus in Part Two's setting of the final Faust Scene (Goethe). Earlier, Cole was tenor soloist for Edo de Waart's Mahler 8, released in passing in USA by RCA-BMG. Our bass-baritone soloist, Pater Ecstaticus, is Clayton Brainerd. Our bass soloist, Pater Profundis, is Harold Wilson. The two alto soloists are Nancy Maultsby and Jane Gilbert.

The major competition for this reading in our current catalog will no doubt partly stem from the new super audio Mahler eighth, by Tilson Thomas in San Francisco. That is a very good reading, too, and has the added glamor of helping wrap up Tilson Thomas complete Mahler set in San Francisco, all captured in glorious Super Audio Surround Sound. MTT's eighth symphony release only leaves a completed version of the tenth symphony missing from his cycle; and given the purist objections to the performance editions of the tenth, MTT may be leaving it out.

Yet, as it happens, Seattle need yield to few discs in our commercial catalog when it comes to this behemoth musical challenge.

It rises high indeed, compared to the single disc Mahler eight competition. Mainly, Solti (Chicago, plus Vienna Choirs) and Kubelik (Bavarian Radio) and Bertini (Cologne Radio). Like them, the standard red book PCM recording grasps the performers in their hall, whole. What comes of the red book disc may not have that last ounce frisson of vivid tonal color and high resolution presence; but as red book discs go, this one is excellent. A superb debut for the Seattle Symphony's in-house recording label projects, with perhaps many other house label releases yet to come from Seattle. Kudos to producer and engineer Dimitriy Lipay for managing this sonic success.

The three choruses are simply tops. You'd never know that you were hearing anything less in music than two adult choirs and a boy choir connected with one the great global top five bands. Not one tiny whit of chorus apologies needed, then. Kudos to the three chorus masters. The massed polyphony of the first part comes through resounding, while still serving up plenty of vigorous choral and musical detail. And the massed ensemble in part one is impeccable, with conductor Gerard Schwarz helming the overall shape and surge with one of the surest musical hands.

The women soloists are just about as good as we can get for this immense music. Not a weak sister among them, soprano or alto. It is lovely to have Lauren Flanagan on disc; she's in stunning voice. Jane Eaglen seems to have survived her Wagnerian assignments; at least from the evidence a listener can weigh by ear, here. Jane Giering-De Haan is a less well known soprano name than Flanagan or Eaglen, but completely matched with her stellar female voiced company. Our two altos are rich, strong voices, too. ...

Tenor Vinson Cole does better for Seattle, than I though he sang in Edo de Waart's reading with the Netherlands Radio forces. Chalk part of this success on the the fact that Gerard Schwarz frames him with more integrated, strong tempos. The Doctor Marianus role is a killer, if the vocal-symphonic literature ever wrote one, a tenor Everest, very difficult. To my ears on the available recordings, only Richard Leech for Maazel in Vienna, and Ben Heppner for Colin Davis in Munich, really made the climb with vocal reserves intact. This part has a consistently high range; that tessitura nearly defeats all comers. A sense of heroic vocal struggle is innate to the musical meaning by now, at least for many soloists. Cole sings better for Seattle than San Francisco's Griffey, as comes off just a tad better than Antoni Wit's Timothy Bensch, Gergiev's Alexander Markov, and other tenors in other readings. The musical appearance of Mater Gloriosa offers a necessary mystical radiance, an effective floating vision conjured without the music coming to a complete halt. In this regard the fine choral work lifts up, just where Vinson Cole leaves off in his solos.

The trio of women's voices at Abraham's Well in the mystical deserts then deepens the sense of mystical picture-painting, not a wooly hoot among them. The result is that this female trio section of Part Two is more welcome and well-sung than most. Again, part of this consistent vocal solo success must be attributed to Gerard Schwarz who simply keeps the music moving along in an integrated flow, not unlike the successes of Solti, Kubelik, or Bertini in their one-disc readings. Jane Eaglen is a much bigger Una Poenitentium than in some Mahler eight casts; but Eaglen loses nothing vocally or otherwise for that sense of vocal-musical size. And when the Mater Gloriosa soloist instructs her to guide Doctor Marianus to higher divine realms, the powerful voices involved make their own sort of impact, white hot in the musical moment.

Again, Vinson Cole's Blicket auf is better sung in Seattle than in the Netherlands, despite the cruelly exposed high reach of its vocal praise of the Queen of Heaven. And the choirs sweep in again with power, color, and conviction. The harmonic terracing that Mahler wrote into the instrumental music and singing as this section elevates is laid out strong and clear.

The finesse and presence of the final Mystical Chorus is perhaps more emphatically human than in some readings, but again I wasn't put off. I thought my ear tingled with a counter-balancing touch of prayer and reverence. Those women soloists thread laser beam lights to set the final choral singing on fire with reds and golds. Full tilt, everybody sweeps to a powerful, satisfying symphonic sized close.

Well, I'm getting the San Francisco eighth, just because. I have others on the keeper shelves, too. But this eighth symphony from Seattle shows that the place has surely come of ripe musical age, if any evidence is needed. Some listeners may fault Seattle and Schwarz for being too extrovert. Tempos are fast enough that the whole huge symphony fits on one disc. And if choruses have any weakness at all, it might be that their singing in some passages of Part Two could have been even softer? I can take a variety of approaches to great music like this, and what I care about most as a listener is captured in depth and energy on this reading. So, Five stars. Get this disc before the special limited Seattle edition goes out of print. Seattle, come of age.
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