Also available on Blu-ray

Chailly conducts a structural masterclass of the Seventh's first movement, formally considered Mahler’s most ‘problematic’ single movement. He marks an emphatic arrival on the brass cadence to close the first subject around five minutes in, and marshals the luscious second theme like a piece of the new Leoncavallo or early Strauss which Mahler apparently shaped so masterfully even while holding his nose at their frivolous realism.

What really distinguishes Chailly’s Mahler nowadays (from his earlier self but also from most of the competition) is that he pushes through the music with the Italianate passion that Abbado chose to efface over the years. Thus a brighter light than usual is shone on the two Nachtmusik movements, while the shadows run deeper as solo harp, then cello, then flute, then trumpet bring about the second movement’s reprise in a carnival-mask passing of the baton from Bruckner to Webern.

The balance favors trilling flutes and manic percussion but allows plenty of room for that guttural Leipzig brass and bass, which has surely never sounded finer.

- Gramophone

MAHLER, G.: Symphony No. 7 (Chailly) (Blu-ray, Full-HD)

Gustav Mahler
SYMPHONY NO. 7
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Recorded live at Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 27–28 February and 2 March 2014

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 83 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A Minor "Tragic"

Rafael Kubelik was born near Prague in 1914, the son of the world famous violinist Jan Kubelik. He studied at the Prague Conservatory and by 1937, he was leading the Czech Philharmonic on tours of Great Britain and Belgium. From 1939-1941, he was Musical Director of the Moravian State Opera in Brno and in 1942, he became Principal Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. Kubelik, after stops in Chicago and Covent Garden, finally found his ideal workplace in Munich, where, as principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for 18 years, he left his mark on Munich's musical life and brought his orchestra international acclaim. Kubelik had become acquainted with the music of Gustav Mahler as a young man, inspired by the work of Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch. He was fascinated from the start by its capacity for passion and sacrifice and its shrewd foreboding, but also as a compatriot by its Bohemian-Moravian roots. It was Kubelik's dedication to radio broadcasting which helped immeasurably in the revival of Mahler's work. Kubelik was the first conductor to perform a complete Mahler symphony cycle, which took place in Munich.

"Good stereo sound, light on the bass but otherwise warm and transparent, makes for a pleasant...listening experience." - ClassicsToday.com

"The opening of the last movement is superbly done with trenchancy and harsh detail unflinchingly presented. The main allegro passages emit the same white-hot intensity of the first two movements and yet there remains a controlling mind behind it to guard against the intensity turning into abandonment and so the tension is ratcheted up." - MusicWeb International

REVIEW:

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s first two releases for Ondine under Christoph Eschenbach (Bartók and Tchaikovsky) were extremely good, no doubt about it, but this Mahler Sixth is really extraordinary. Part of its success must stem from the fact that the best German conductors usually do misery especially well, finding the dark side of just about everything. If you don’t believe me, check out Kurt Sanderling’s startlingly deep and edgy rendition of Poulenc’s Concert Champêtre on Supraphon. So you can just imagine what can happen with a piece like Mahler’s Sixth. Anyone fortunate enough to have heard Eschenbach’s performances of this work with the NDR Orchestra in Hamburg will know that he has a special feeling for its harrowing intensity and expressionistic instrumental palette. Toss in the collective virtuosity of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the result is, to put it mildly, pretty special.

As a coupling, the early piano quartet movement is more appropriate than you might at first think. First of all, it shares the same key as the symphony, and second, it’s useful to have it along as part of an all-Mahler program, allowing collectors to round out their collections without having to search for an acceptable all-chamber-music program. The engineering also represents the best in this series so far, with virtually no audience noise, tremendous presence in both stereo and multichannel formats, and extremely natural balances between orchestral sections. I know that Mahler Sixes seem to be a dime a dozen these days, but this one, a first for Philadelphia, belongs among the elite few (Bernstein I and II, Chailly, Levi, T. Sanderling, and Gielen). It’s just bloody thrilling.

— ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Conductor Daniel Harding's follow up to his first BR-Klassik CD (Schumann's Faust Scenes, BR-KLASSIK, 900122) is this 2014 live recording of Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony from Munich's Philharmonie I'm Gasteig. Counting Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado among his teachers, he has since 2005 made a name for himself leading spectacular concerts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as guest conductor. One of Mahler's most unusual symphonies, the score of the Sixth is dark and complex, contrasting starkly with what appeared on the surface to be a happy and carefree phase of his life during it's composition. The BRSO has been a pioneering ensemble among the world's greatest orchestras in performances of Mahler's symphonies, dating to the Rafael Kubel�k era of the 1960s.

The sixth was the last of Mahler's symphonies to reach the United States, in December 1947, more than forty-one years after the composer conducted its premiere. Even considering the typical fate of Mahler's symphonies - launched under the composer's baton, misunderstood and often rejected by audiences and conductors during the decades that followed - the neglect of the Sixth Symphony is exceptional.

This outstanding performance of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony formed part of Hartmut Haenchen’s Mahler Cycle with the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra. Haenchen is renowned and respected for his interpretations of Mahler and Wagner and has had a significant presence in many of the world’s leading opera houses. An expressive and dramatic rendition of the Tragische, Haenchen’s high intellect and musical integrity are apparent. The recording also benefits from DTS 5.1 surround sound.

The ICA Classics Live series features performances from ICA’s own artists recorded in prestigious venues around the world. The majority of the recordings are enjoying their first commercial release.

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is playable only on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Recorded live at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 6, 7 and 9 September 2012

Bonus:
- My Sixth will propound riddles – A panel discussion with Riccardo Chailly and Reinhold Kubik

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles (bonus): German, English, French
Running time: 86 mins (concert) + 18 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)

MAHLER Symphony No. 6 & • Riccardo Chailly, cond; Gewandhaus O • ACCENTUS 20268 (DVD: 86:25 + 18:28)

& Panel discussion with Riccardo Chailly and Reinhold Kubik

A Mahler Sixth in which the Andante movement comes second? And where the last movement has two hammer blows, not the three that Mahler himself included at the premiere)? Well, yes, and those are just two of the things that make Riccardo Chailly’s interpretation of this over-familiar work sound new. Another is the incredibly swift, truly scherzo-like tempo with which Chailly takes the (now) third movement, not at a pace mimicking the first, as usually happens when it comes second.

Some of the mystery is explained in the 18-minute conversation that Chailly holds in the bonus feature. The “wrong” order of the movements (Allegro energico, Andante moderato, Scherzo, and Finale: Sostenuto) is how they appeared in the conductor’s score that was actually published in March 1906. By the time a second score was published in November of the same year, the Scherzo now came second, and this is how it was premiered. In addition, the premiere had three hammer blows in the last movement, not the traditional two; that came later, too. Early in the interview Chailly admitted that he had copiously studied the scores owned by conductor Willem Mengelberg, who had known Mahler and who wrote down all sorts of things, including metronome markings (usually not in Mahler’s symphonies), that he slavishly followed for years. “But now,” Chailly says, “I am no longer such a slave to tradition.” Musicologist Reinhold Kubik of the Mahler Society mentions that when Mengelberg wrote to Alma Mahler about the order of the movements, she said that the Andante came second—and she stuck by that judgment even as late as 1957. Was she wrong? She did mention that he had conducted it that way in a city where he never played this work, but memory is a tricky thing, and the fact that she emphatically insisted that the Andante came second in letters written some 40 years apart should count for something.

Whatever your judgment of these decisions, there is no question that Chailly’s Sixth is simply mind-boggling. The first movement itself is taken at an Allegro that is certainly more energico than I’ve ever heard it before in my life. In a certain sense, this new, brisker tempo rather eliminates the feeling of jackboots marching that most other conductors bring out in it; rather, it sounds like the blind rush of a madman, interrupted by the calmer middle section.

But there is much more to Chailly’s Mahler than just faster tempos. There is a much stronger feeling of organic unity and structure in the music, a more songful legato line in each and every movement, and the playing of the Gewandhaus Orchestra is staggeringly beautiful and dramatically effective. Chailly seats the orchestra the way Mahler himself wanted it: first and second violins split left and right, cellos in the middle right behind them, other instruments spaced out so as to create the balances Mahler so carefully constructed. (Michael Gielen seated his orchestra the same way when he conducted Mahler in Cincinnati during the 1980s.) The “traditional” seating used by most orchestras, Kubik tells us, originated from that used by Leopold Stokowski when he conducted Mahler in America in the early-to-mid 20th century. And in the last movement, which runs 34 minutes, Chailly creates a world-within-a-world. His hammer blows are not just some bangy little hammer on an anvil, but a HUGE wooden mallet that looks like it needed Thor to handle it.

On the podium, Chailly presents the image of an excited schoolboy, jumping up and down, raising his arms and slicing his baton through the air like the drop of a guillotine. Perhaps it is a bit overdone, especially if you are accustomed (as I am) to watching such conductors as Kempe, Böhm, Toscanini, Gielen, and Ormandy conduct, but it doesn’t really seem like an affectation, either. Most of what he does is either in response to the music or in anticipation of how he wants the next attack or the next phrase to go. He is simply emotionally involved in each and every bar of the score, and he wants it just so. Considering the great results he gets, I can’t really find much fault with that. After all, he does ask all the principal wind players to stand up and take a bow at the end.

So often, for me, watching a conductor perform an orchestral concert is a bit like watching paint dry, unless you are a really big fan of conductor X and you want to study the way he moves on the podium, but in this case I found myself completely caught up in watching Chailly and the orchestra because they’re so deeply into what they are doing. In the trailer on this disc for his video of the Fourth Symphony, Chailly mentions that both he and the Gewandhaus Orchestra musicians have come to an understanding of how to best play Mahler: They get involved but always remain in control. “If you let Mahler control you,” he warns, “you’re heading for trouble.” In addition to all this, the high-resolution digital sound is as spectacular as Chailly’s interpretation, capturing the slightest rustle of harp strings and the sound of stays on the oboe with astounding clarity.

Looking at the trailers, there are also DVDs out of Chailly conducting the Second, Fourth, and Eighth Symphonies. The snippets I’ve heard of all of them sound amazing. I recommend looking for all of them, and also awaiting the rest of the series.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.



MAHLER Symphony No. 5 • Markus Stenz, cond; Cologne Gürzenich O • OEHMS 650 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 68:03)


This release inaugurates a new Mahler symphony series. Whatever the relative merits of the completed cycle, there is ample justification for a recording of the Fifth from these forces: Mahler conducted the premiere of the Symphony in Cologne with this orchestra in October of 1905. The premiere generated an unusual amount of critical comment, most of it negative: Mahler had arrived, but surely not in the way he would have preferred. This Symphony had caused him considerable difficulty, and he was revising the orchestration in his last year. Even now, there is disagreement about the nature and tempo of the Adagietto and the proper way to conduct the last note of the first movement.


After a suitably commanding opening, Stenz wastes no time in the funeral march. This is a stern, dry-eyed march characterized by grim determination. There is nobility, however, in the implacable forward momentum of the interpretation—no nostalgic backward glances here, but perhaps a note of regret. The sudden accelerando is almost hair-raisingly fast, but is soon moderated by an impressive chorale, presaging the even more devastating “collapse.” Altogether, this is a very convincing version of Mahler’s preamble. (Incidentally, the last note is underplayed very effectively.)


Stenz storms in with the second, more substantial movement of part 1, and the tumultuous energy of the orchestra is indeed impressive. When the funeral march appears again, it possesses a nicely gauged satiric edge that sharpens the melancholy. This sense is deepened by a cello cantilena that halts the proceedings with playing of refinement and feeling. The quacking winds and schmaltzy violins soon cast doubt on the sincerity of all of that angst, however—Mahler at his most ambivalent. Stenz is most impressive at conveying the contradictions that made for so much consternation and confusion among Mahler’s first audiences: is he serious, making a mockery of the heroics of the Wunderhorn symphonies with that falsely triumphant chorale near the end of this movement?


All of that ambiguity is dissolved with the jolly Scherzo. Stenz points up the rhythmic variety while allowing the dance element its primacy. This is hardly a courtly waltz, though: there is too much gear shifting for such a characterization; here, truly, is Wagner’s “apotheosis of the dance.” The Gürzenich principals take the spotlight: though the horn is putatively the star, the strings and winds are just as impressive.


After the bumptious energy of the Scherzo, the calm of the Adagietto is indeed welcome. Stenz is an adherent of the Mengelberg/Kaplan school, so his is a swiftly flowing love note. This relative brevity only serves to heighten the sense of anticipation, and the ardor of the playing is palpable: it is performances such as this that convince one that Leonard Bernstein was simply wrong about this movement.


The rhythmic excitement of the Scherzo returns in the enormously animated Rondo-Finale. This is surely Mahler’s most life-affirming symphonic movement, at least among the instrument-only finales, and Stenz and his Cologne contingent invest the music with élan and sheer instrumental muscle. At a timing of less than 15 minutes, the music fairly flies along, but one feels only exuberance, never just speed for speed’s sake.


To echo my opening statement, whatever befalls the eventual series as a whole, this first installment makes for an auspicious beginning. From this unanticipated source comes a Mahler Fifth worthy to rank with SACDs by Zander (Telarc) and Jansons (RSO Live), and it receives my highest recommendation.


FANFARE: Christopher Abbot

This disc will sell well. Kubelik became acquainted with Mahler's music as a young man, inspired by the work of Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch. He was fascinated from the start by its capacity for passion and sacrifice and its shrewd foreboding, but also as a compatriot by its Bohemian-Moravian roots. Until the late 1960s Mahler was still considered as an eccentric outsider whose music was grudgingly performed from time to time. It was Kubelik's dedication to radio broadcasting which instigated the revival of Mahler's work, culminating in Kubelik being the first conductor to perform a complete Mahler cycle, which took place in Munich.

An enduring audience favourite Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 continues to maintain a firm hold on the concert repertoire with an abundance of choice in the record catalogues. It’s a work that can make a deep emotional impression. I can still recall an Olympian performance of the Symphony No. 5 that I attended in 2011 at Berlin by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck. With the performance being given on actual day of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers of the New York’s World Trade Center the performance had an extra poignancy.

The orchestra on this Profil release the Hamburg based NDR Sinfonieorchester was established after the war in 1945 under the name of the Symphony Orchestra of Radio Hamburg. Berlin born Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt was the founding conductor and its concerts were played at the Hamburg Musikhalle renamed the Laeiszhalle. The orchestra’s present name the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg (North German Radio Symphony Orchestra Hamburg) was chosen in 1956 following the splitting of the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (Northwest German Broadcasting) into two regions the NDR and WDR. Principal conductors of the Hamburg orchestra have included Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph Eschenbach, John Eliot Gardiner, Christoph von Dohnányi and Klaus Tennstedt the conductor here.

Klaus Tennstedt responds to the multifarious moods of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with passionately commitment and enthralling drama. From the first note to the last there's a judicious balance struck between stunningly expressive playing and care for the overall structure. In the opening of the Trauermarsch (Funeral March) the intensity of nightmarish expression and the sheer weight of sound send a shiver down the spine. Overall Tennstedt takes the movement slower than I was expecting. Immediately I noticed the excellent condition of the brass with the strings also radiating a glorious bloom. Such a magnificent creation; in the uplifting second movement who could fail to be impressed by playing that swells gloriously into determined climaxes. The overtly pictorial Scherzo feels like open-air music, a refreshing stride through verdant Alpine vistas with Tennstedt's penetrating clarity communicating the stunning sights and sounds along the route. One could almost be reading intimate pages from Mahler’s holiday diary. Especially striking is the wonderful horn playing and the distinctive rich and firm tone of the cellos. In this movement Tennstedt directs a climax that was shattering in terms of exhilaration, volume and force, almost pinning me back into my seat. Mahler’s declaration of his deep love for wife Alma, the justly famous Adagietto, feels so intense and emotionally persuasive it could break the stoniest of hearts. Imbued with a captivating sense of optimism and vigour the Rondo-Finale just trips along buoyantly, generating great excitement. In the rumbustious final pages the reserves of sheer energy that Tennstedt demands from his responsive Hamburg players is produced in spades. This is a highly engaging live 1980 Laeiszhalle recording from Tennstedt. It can confidently rub shoulders with many of the acclaimed accounts. Nevertheless, I will continue to reach for my treasured live 1981 Herkulessaal, Munich recording from Rafael Kubelik and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks on Audite.

Mahler composed his orchestral song cycle Kindertotenlieder (Songs for dead children) in 1901/04 to texts by Friedrich Rückert. Following the deaths of two of his children, Rückert wrote over four hundred poems collectively titled Kindertotenlieder. Alma Mahler strongly expressed her discomfort with the subject matter as if composing Kindertotenlieder would somehow tempt fate. Subsequently Mahler and Alma became haunted by the death of their own child Maria in 1907. Given the sombre nature of the inspiration it is not surprising that an achingly poignant mood cloaks these songs. At times I can hear shades of the exotic sound-world that Mahler established a few years later in Das Lied von der Erde. In this live 1980 Kieler Schloss recording of the Kindertotenlieder cycle the sadness and sense of total despair produced by Brigitte Fassbaender’s implacably expressive vocal is almost too sad to bear. It is striking how she is able to deepen and darken her tone to great effect. Overall this is a fine performance without quite matching the intensity of her own compelling 1988/89 Jesus Christus Kirche, Berlin account with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Riccardo Chailly on EMI. Another classic account of Kindertotenlieder that stands out from the crowd is the remarkable 1967/69 Abbey Road, London recording from Janet Baker with the Hallé Orchestra under John Barbirolli on EMI.

Recorded live in 1980 these two engaging performances are welcome additions to the Mahler catalogue. The sound quality of these made-for-radio broadcast recordings is excellent with satisfying clarity and balance. Regrettably the Rückert Kindertotenlieder texts and English translations are omitted.

- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

This selection is a Hybrid Multichannel Super Audio CD. The Stereo Hybrid
SACD program can be played on any standard compact disc player. The DSD
Surround and Stereo programs require an SACD player for playback.

This release is the fourth volume in Adam Fischer’s fabulous survey of Mahler’s symphonies. His previous volumes in the cycle have garnered widespread critical acclaim, including two Editor’s Choices by Gramophone. The Fifth Symphony is one of Mahler’s most loved works. Composed during the summer months of 1901 and 1902 at Mahler’s holiday cottage at Maiernigg, the 5th Symphony features a trumpet solo that opens the work with the same rhythmic motive as the famous opening of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The scope of the work is huge, lasting over an hour and requiring a large number of musicians. The fourth movement, Adagietto, is said to represent Mahler’s love song to his wife, Alma, and is probably the composer’s most performed piece of music.

-----

REVIEWS:

Fischer’s elastic sense of tempo can be stretched to extremes in the Adagietto. What remains outstanding is the textural clarity and what is among the clearest renderings on disc of the finale’s teeming fugues. A peerless trumpet rides the first-movement welters impressively, too. The strings may not be the weightiest in the business, but every phrase is beautifully detailed and projected.

– BBC Music Magazine

Adam Fischer’s kinship with this music seems to grow exponentially with each successive instalment of what is already proving an exceptional Mahler cycle. There’s a stylistic and emotional understanding which goes beyond the precisely annotated scores. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this account of the Fifth Symphony is the ‘in the moment’ feeling it engenders from first to last.

– Gramophone

Also available on standard DVD

Andris Nelsons conducted the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for the third time in August 2015, the orchestra’s second summer without founder and guiding spirit Claudio Abbado. The first half of his concert was already a highlight: the baritone Matthias Goerne seemed completely at home in a selection of songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. His warm, dark voice allows him to capture the somber and tragic atmosphere of this music like no one else. Its shaded timbre is most perfectly suited to the work’s melancholy and nocturnal moods, where one can directly experience how an artist of this caliber can bring music to the edge of the abyss. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra, renowned for its unique Mahler sound, had last played Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in the summer of 2004 with Abbado – a flowing, transparent, and ethereal interpretation. Nelsons finds a completely different approach to the work. His Mahler is fiery, expansive, and powerful. In spite of the introductory funeral march, his reading is more positive than tragic, radiating an intense vitality. It is breathtaking to observe the orchestra’s response to Nelsons’s energetic, physical, and emotional conducting style. The relationship between orchestra and conductor is one of giving and taking, nothing else.

Picture Format Blu?ray: NTSC 16:9, Full HD

Sound Formats Blu?ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 123:12 min

Disc Format: BD 25

Subtitles: German (Original), French, English, Japanese, Korean