Jonathan Nott and his Bamberger Symphoniker have added a new chapter to the performance history of Mahler symphonies. In every respect, the conductor's individual stamp and the orchestra's characteristic sound do justice to thsi symphonic universe. The recording breathes new life into Gustav Mahler's visions, his creativity, inner conflicts, yearning and joyful music-making. Human tragedy and divine comedy are united in a unique work of art: Dall'Inferno al Paradiso

With it's enormous vocal, choral and orchestral forces, Mahler' Eighth Symphony, later to be dubbed 'ymphony of a Thousand', is one of the largest and longest symphonies in the active repertoire. Part One, inspired by the Whitsuntide Vesper hymn.

As a team, Osmo Vänskä and his Minnesota Orchestra began their collaboration with BIS in 2004, launching a Beethoven symphony cycle that made reviewers worldwide sit up and take notice: "a modern reference edition" was the verdict on web site ClassicsToday.com, while Gramophone Magazine described it as "a Beethoven reforged for today's world". Twelve years later saw the release of the third and final disc in the Minnesota-Vänskä cycle of Sibelius's symphonies, with individual discs receiving distinctions such as a 2014 Grammy Award (for symphonies Nos. 1 and 4), Gramophone's Editor's Choice, Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine and inclusion on the annual list of best classical recordings in New York Times.

The present disc launches yet another series, of even more monumental proportions, with Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, recorded by the orchestra under Osmo Vänskä in Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis in June 2016. Composed in 1902, the purely instrumental work followed upon three symphonies that had all included vocal parts. This and the opening trumpet motif, an allusion to the rhythm that begins Beethoven's Fifth have been interpreted as Mahler's return to a more conventional idea of the symphonic genre. Other features are less traditional, however –a sometimes bewildering mixture of musical idioms reminds us of the melting-pot that Vienna was at the time, with allusions to Austrian, Bohemian and Hungarian styles. To an unsuspecting audience, the famous Adagietto for strings and harp –probably the best-known of all of Mahler's music –must also have been surprising, appearing at the heart of a work which is otherwise lavishly scored and orchestrated.

REVIEW:

The orchestral playing is crisp; the conductor, although determined to avoid histrionics, cognizant that emotional extremism is an essential part of Mahler’s idiom even if it need not be indulged. While some might prefer to look elsewhere for the customary Mahlerian blend of anguish, heft, and geniality, there’s more going on here than a thoughtful seating plan and state-of-the-art production.

BIS’s SACD format is certain to wow audiophiles. Even heard through two channels the recording is spacious yet precise and, true to form, the dynamic range is vast, complementing Osmo Vänskä’s partiality for music-making on the threshold of audibility.

– Gramophone

With their combination of modernism and Romantic nostalgia, and alternation of sweeping orchestral gestures with chamber-musical delicacy, Gustav Mahler’s orchestral works are as impressive and moving today as they were at the time of their premiere. This certainly applies to Mahler’s Fourth Symphony: a work that stands at the crossroads between the largely “Romantic” early symphonies nos. 1–3 and the much more “Modernist” middle-period symphonies nos. 5–7. It is also a fundamentally ambivalent piece: its joyous and accessible surface hides a surprising degree of complexity and even contrariness. While still employing many of the tropes of the traditional nineteenth-century symphony, Mahler at the same time undermines those tropes and distances himself from the symphonic tradition he inherited. The entire symphony works towards the pastoral folksong “Das himmlische Leben” in the fourth movement, sung here by the outstanding Swedish soprano Miah Persson. The Piano Quartet is Mahler’s only surviving chamber music composition, and the movement represented on this album is the only one he completed. Mahler wrote the piece most likely in 1876 or 1877. This is Gustavo Gimeno’s fourth recording with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL) for Pentatone.

Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony started life as a single-movement tone poem called Todtenfeier (‘Funeral Rites’). Completed in 1888 – one year before Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration – it echoed the composer's vision of seeing himself lying dead in a funeral bier surrounded by flowers. Deciding to use it as his opening movement, Mahler didn't finish the complete five-movement symphony until more than six years later, the longest time he spent on any work. The huge scale of the work apart, its weighty subject matter may well have contributed to the slow progress: Mahler himself outlined a scenario making references to the ultimate meaning of life and death (first movement), recollections of lost innocence and the desperation of unbelief (second and third movements), the return to naïve faith (fourth movement) and final redemption from the last judgement (finale). To convey this he took recourse to the human voice: incorporating a solo alto in the 4th movement Urlicht, he went on in the finale to risk comparison with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by introducing a choir, as well as a soprano and alto soloist.

Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä have received praise for their previous Mahler recordings (‘Vänskä and the orchestra are among the finest exponents of Mahler’s music...’, allmusic.com). The team is here joined by soloists Ruby Hughes and Sasha Cooke and the Minnesota Chorale in the deeply moving close to the vast and tumultuous panorama that is his Second Symphony.

REVIEW:

[Vänskä] adopts a nicely relaxed approach – and pace – for the second movement. The strings play very stylishly and the recording differentiates very well indeed between the various string parts. The third movement is also largely a success; the sardonic humour comes across quite well – as is in keeping with the original Knaben Wunderhorn song on which the movement is based. The orchestra points the music very effectively with special praise for the woodwind in this regard. The wild premonition of the finale (8:03) is projected with dramatic force and urgency. Sasha Cooke sings "Urlicht" very well indeed.

The huge finale is unleashed in dramatic fashion and the vivid impact of the bass drum stroke is typical of the quality of the BIS recording. Vänskä handles this vast musical fresco pretty well. The drama is projected strongly, not least in the huge march episode that follows those two apocalyptic percussion crescendi (9:21). The grosse Appell is impressive (17:16): the distant brass is very well handled in the recording and the solo piccolo and flute distinguish themselves. When the choir begins to sing (20:01) their sound is hushed but distinct, which is as it should be. Ruby Hughes’ silvery voice rises gently and sweetly from the midst of the singers at the end of the first long phrase. Miss Hughes does very well, too, in the ‘O Glaube’ duet with Sasha Cooke.

The performance is highly accomplished. Vänskä has a good choir at his disposal and two excellent soloists. As for his orchestra, they play the music marvellously. There are many idiomatic touches such as string portamenti while accents – so crucial in Mahler – and dynamics are scrupulously observed.

– MusicWeb International

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Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana, world heritage site and one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls, hosted Gustavo Dudamel and the Münchner Philharmoniker with an unforgettable performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “The Resurrection.“ The composer emphasizes life and death in all its terrible and stunning splendor in this overwhelming opus: “There is nothing except the complete substance of my whole life”, he remarked on his all-embracing oeuvre. Gustavo Dudamel, who said it was “a privilege to conduct this work in this unique venue,“ and his ensemble were celebrated with more than then minutes of applause. American mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford and Israeli soprano Chen Reiss as well as the seemingly weightless choirs of Orfeó Català and Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana perform “a mark-shattering finale with goosebumps” (Münchner Merkur). “The dynamic range is enormous. But most fascinating are the moments of absolute silence, in which you can feel how the dramaturgy of the evening comes together: An audience holds its breath” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). “Really an event … a phantastic conjunction of stars … a memorable interpretation“. (El Periódico)

No work embodies Theodor W. Adorno's quote better than Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). Its subject and internal structure form the core aspect of the composition and thus are the cornerstones of a work which is much more than just ''a serious piece''. Gustav Mahler wrote Das Lied von der Erde in 1908 during his extremely tumultuous later life. Before his death in 1911, he had heard the premiere of neither the orchestral version nor his handwritten piano version. One important result of this was that the piano version disappeared from the public eye and remained in the possession of his window Alma Mahler. Its first performance was not until 1989. Since then, few pianists have ventured to it, certainly due to the fact that the orchestral version has itself long been established as an important work worldwide. The pianist and producer Christian Kalberer, together with Alexandra von Roepke and Peter Furlong, chooses the straight, unguarded musical path, musique directe, as a way of a dialectic of enlightenment. As Mahler wrote in a letter to Bruno Walter about this composition: I believe that it is the most personal thing I've done so far. At this time Mahler was still quite unsure about what to call the piece. At the first opportunity though, he gave it the farthest, furthest title: The Song of the Earth. Contained within its musical and dramatic continuity is a complete philosophy, which is reserved for only the greatest, teh most successful works of art.

During his time as Principal Conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker (2000-2016) one of Jonathan Nott’s most significant ventures was the Mahler symphony cycle he recorded for Tudor. Right at the end of his tenure in Bamberg he has added Das Lied von der Erde.

I’ve heard Stephen Gadd on several occasions, both on disc and live, and generally to good effect though I’ve not experienced him in an undertaking such as this. Roberto Saccà, however, is a singer whose work I’ve not previously experienced. He makes a good impression. His fine, ringing tenor is heard to good advantage in ’Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde’ and he puts over well the drinker’s air of desperation to be merry. He also conveys an element of longing at “Das Firmament blaut ewig” and the grotesque passage about the ape is convincingly done both by Saccà and the orchestra. Saccà displays a pleasingly light touch in his second song, ‘Von der Jungend’ and here he benefits from Jonathan Nott’s sprightly tempo. I much prefer this to the sturdy speed that Klemperer adopts in his classic account of the work in which his tenor is Fritz Wunderlich (review). The Tudor performance is nimble and I very much approve. In his final song, ‘Der Trunkene im Frühling’ Saccà again offers excellent ringing tone where it’s appropriate but he’s also successful in the passages which call for a more gently lyrical style . He also shows imagination in the way he characterises the episode concerning the bird.

We must also take into account the orchestral playing and the conducting. The Bamberger Symphoniker are seriously impressive. This is a very exposed score yet it never feels that way and the playing is consistently refined. All the solo playing is excellent but I must single out for special praise the superb flautist in ‘Der Abschied’. Jonathan Nott has the measure of this score, it seems to me and I think he conducts it extremely well. He brings out the details in the score without any exaggeration.

There’s another feature of this release that calls for comment: the recorded sound. I’ve heard several Tudor discs and I’m regularly impressed with the results their engineers achieve. This recording is definitely up to the standards of the house. I listened to this hybrid SACD using the stereo option as I don’t have surround sound facilities. I found the sound to be truthful and very natural throughout. The details of Mahler’s ever-subtle and imaginative orchestration register beautifully and everything is very well balanced. One detail that I must mention is the tam-tam in ‘Der Abschied’. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the instrument so magnificently caught in a recording. Even the softest strokes of all register marvellously. At all dynamic levels the tam-tam is presented with spine-tingling realism here.

I’m bound to say I wish Jonathan Nott had opted for the more usual choice of a mezzo in this recording and that’s no reflection on Stephen Gadd’s singing. I just think a female voice can convey so many more nuances than a baritone. Nonetheless, this account of Das Lied von der Erde is not to be underestimated and it’s presented in marvellous sound. Those who have been following Jonathan Nott’s Mahler symphony cycle will be glad he’s added Das Lied to it.

– MusicWeb International (John Quinn)

"Bernard Haitink has apparently only recorded the Ninth Symphony once before, as part of his complete cycle with the Concertgebouw Orchestra for Philips, released in 1970....there's a feeling of urgency about this new performance that I don't remember in Haitink's Mahler before, as if he is now almost impatient with the Ninth's resigned acceptance of mortality. There's an angularity about the woodwind lines and a rawness to the textures from what is one of Europe's finest orchestras that seems to expose the music's nerve ends; it's not always comfortable listening, but it is sometimes startling." - Andrew Clements, The Guardian, London

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Also available on standard DVD

This captures much of the peerless tone-colour, shape, drive and above all those hushed dynamics of [the] performance, awarded what feels like an infinite silence at the end... Abbado's pacing is unrivalled... the mixture of close-ups and wide shots in the final rituals is superb as ever from this team. Finest concert DVD ever? I think so.

– David Nice, BBC Music Magazine [6/2011]

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Recorded live at the Concert Hall of the Culture and Convention Center, Lucerne, 19-21 August 2010.

Claudio Abbado and his hand-picked players of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra take their acclaimed Mahler cycle to a new level with this performance of the most complex and compelling of the symphonies, the intense, searching Ninth. Abbado brings all his renowned clarity of vision and the experience of a lifetime to this contradictory music – half valedictory, half life-affirming – and his “orchestra of soloists”, including some of the leading instrumentalists of our time, revels in the transparent textures and virtuosity of Mahler’s last completed symphony. “A rendition ... of astonishing depth and subtlety” (Daily Telegraph).

Extraordinary highlight of the program is the additional perspective of the “Conductor Camera”. This special feature offers the option to experience Claudio Abbado from the orchestra’s perspective. The Blu-ray even provides a multi-angle feature to change the video angle between the program and the conductor camera during the whole concert.

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 95 mins
No. of Discs: 1

Just when you thought you didn't need yet another Mahler 8, along comes this version, and it just about sweeps the board. Let's face it, it's been a good couple of years for this symphony. Chailly's Decca recording was magnificently played and sung; Nagano's is unrivalled for its sensuality and atmosphere and is sensational in surround sound; and EMI recently reissued the Bertini--exciting, cogent, and perhaps the finest of all in terms of singing and orchestral execution. Antoni Wit, whose Mahler hasn't been all that impressive thus far, comes closest to Bertini in terms of the sheer intelligence of his conducting, and in his scrupulous adherence to both the spirit and the letter of the score. But he also has that sense of vastness that Bertini deliberately underplays, but with no loss of clarity. The engineering really is something special. It captures lots of detail in quiet passages and has plenty of amplitude at the climaxes, including an organ and offstage brass better integrated into the overall sound picture than in any other performance.


Wit is helped by really outstanding choral singing. The combined choirs have enough power to make the contrapuntal lines in the first movement's epic fugue clear, even in a large acoustic, and the children are simply terrific. As with Tennstedt's recording, the soloists emerge naturally from within the orchestral fabric, their lines intertwining with Mahler's characteristic writing for the winds and strings. This makes all of those "Wunderhorn"-style solos in the second movement spring colorfully to life.


Not only do the singers cooperate and blend splendidly with each other in the first movement, but there's not a significantly weak link among them. Soprano Izabela Klosinska's fresh, girlish soprano is ideal for Gretchen, even if her German pronunciation is a bit strange, and all of the other women are excellent. Tenor Timonthy Bentch does as fine a job with his first big number in praise of the Virgin as just about anyone: he's bright, confident, and heroic, and his "Blicket auf!" is stunning. You won't hear a more virile Pater Ecstaticus than Wojtek Drabowicz, nor a steadier, more solidly imposing Pater Profundis than Piotr Nowacki.


But most of the credit has to go to Wit. In a recording that could have turned into a muddle, he energizes his huge forces to give a 100 percent effort. The orchestra plays magnificently. You will hear countless details in the brass section that you haven't heard elsewhere, and the string articulation is worth the price of the disc (listen to the generous portamentos when the tenor sings "Mutter, Königin" in the "Blicket auf!" episode, here taken slowly and with as sensual a feel for sonority as Nagano).


But slow is very much the exception. Wit finds the ideal allegro for the opening movement and never loses sight of it. He drives the double fugue thrillingly to its climax, and most importantly never lets the tension sag in the quieter moments--check out "Infirma nostri corporis" in the first movement to hear how he sustains the pulse when most other versions lose it entirely. There are countless other examples of Wit's sensitivity in this regard: try his thrilling return to tempo primo when the choir reenters with "Accende lumen sensibus" in mid-fugue. Powerful stuff!


The prelude to the second movement has great atmosphere as well as really impressive phrasing from the strings. Later, Wit makes a big and wholly appropriate accelerando into the scherzando eruption of the women's chorus after the Pater Profundis solo, and from then on he keeps the music moving purposefully forward. The three solos for the ladies, and their trio, move along smartly, which makes the glowing appearance of the Mater Gloriosa, perfectly sung by soprano Marta Boberska, all the more evocative.


Instrumental details, such as the mandolin parts before the children's final chorus, and those flecks of harp and celesta that pepper the movement's second half, all register naturally and give the music the shimmer that Mahler intended. Notice how naturally Wit integrates the glittering piccolo solo transition to the Chorus Mysticus: so often it comes across as an independent episode, but here it's a single arch of melody coming to rest in the first notes of the chorus. It's what great Mahler conducting should be.


So, where does this leave us? There are now Mahler Eighths for just about every taste. Bertini is lean and lively, but with amazing codas to each movement. Nagano is lush, even decadent. There are also fine earlier versions from Bernstein (Sony), Tennstedt (EMI), Sinopoli (DG), and Solti (Decca), and an impressive if technically flawed live version from Kubelik (Audite). But if you want to hear a performance that combines the best of just about all of the competing versions and offers the most accurate sense of what the piece really does (or should) sound like live, then this is the way to go. The fact that it's available at budget price is a bonus: you would pay twice as much with pleasure to enjoy an interpretation on this level of excellence. What an extraordinary and delightful surprise! [4/11/2006]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Adam Fischer writes of Mahler’s 8th Symphonie: “Mahler’s Eighth is a special challenge for all participants: in rehearsals, in performance, and, of course, when making a recording. The challenge lies in freeing the music from all of the technical and logistical problems that come with it. Whenever new possibilities emerged in music history (such as new musical instruments), composers tended to introduce the novelty quite frequently in the first phase to show its potential. A good example was the Mannheim School in the 1700s. The crescendo had just been invented: musicians no longer had to play dynamics in “terraced levels.” Mannheim pieces from that period are thus brimming with crescendos: musicians reveled in the new possibilities. Mahler, later on, wanted to explore the possibilities of an orchestra of unprecedented size, particularly in the Eighth. The effects made possible by such an enlargement should not become an end in themselves. That is the special challenge we have faced. If on this recording we have over 500 people singing and playing together, that is only a means, not an end…”

Winner of a 2022 Gramophone Award for Best Orchestral Recording!

If one sought a musical manifestation of all the painful experiences and tragic failures of European history in the early 20th century, it would be impossible to overlook the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. Here, there is no harmony where discord is more fitting. Here, life cries out, with all the conflict and joy it proffers humanity. In their performances, Kirill Petrenko and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester have enabled these experiences to resonate in remarkable fashion. What better way to launch the Bayerische Staatsopers new label than with this outstanding live concert recording. (Nikolaus Bachler, General Manager, Bayerische Staatsoper) Kirill Petrenko, general music director of the Bayerische Staatsoper from 2013 until 2020, conducts Gustav Mahlers Symphony No. 7 a pinnacle of the symphonic repertoire in a dramatic interpretation. This is the first audio-recording with Kirill Petrenko as chief conductor of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester.

Without dispute Teodor Currentzis is today’s hottest & most sought after conductor, alongside his orchestra & choir MusicAeterna. “The Greek-Russian conductor who has taken the classical music world by storm” (THE TIMES) This is Currentzis’s first ever recording of Mahler. Mahler’s symphonies feature heavily in their tour programme – but this is the first time Currentzis has gone into the studio with this composer. His last recording of major symphony repertoire (Tchaikovsky 6) is the highest shipped single album for Currentzis repertoire to date. The Album won Japanese Recording Academy’s highest accolade Gold Award, received 5-star reviews from The Times, NRC Handelsblad, a Diapason D’or Award and was named in many Top albums for 2017 including Best classical recording in Spiegel Online and appeared on the New York Times Best Classical Music Recordings for 2017.

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REVIEWS:

Anyone who thrilled (as I did) to Teodor Currentzis’s Tchaikovsky Pathétique will find distinct parallels here. The impulse, the imperative, of this Mahler Sixth is extraordinary – a headlong ride to the abyss with every rhythm and counter-rhythm fiercely articulated, every accent, every slicing sforzando grimly incisive. Inner parts pull focus as they have rarely done so before surprising even those of us for whom the piece is frighteningly familiar.

– Gramophone

Currentzis is not quite the iconoclast he’s sometimes made out to be – it’s more that he appears able to shoulder the weight of accumulated performing tradition and then, decisively, shrug it off. If you can imagine a Mahler 6 in which the urgency and raw edge of Roger Norrington rubs up against the red-blooded glitz of Leonard Bernstein, this is it.

– Guardian (UK)

Mahler: Symphony No. 5