The Norwegian early music ensemble Barokkanerne offers a new CD on the LAWO Classics label devoted to the music of Georg Philipp Telemann, one of music history's most productive composers! Leading the ensemble is Kati Debretzeni (concertmaster of Sir John Elliot Gardiner's English Baroque Soloists).

Includes song(s) by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Soloists: Sergei Leiferkus, Nina Rautio, Semeon Skigin.

These things are almost always pleasant--after all, if there's one thing English composers have done well since the beginning of time it is to write appealing, affecting, idiomatic music for strings. Although with Volume 6 in this smartly organized English String Music series the selections may not be uniformly of the first rank, what's not to like here, from Holst's typically well-crafted, traditionalist Moorside Suite (first written for brass) and Purcell's sturdy, stylish Chacony in G minor, to Paul Lewis' melancholy film-score-ish Rosa Mundi and Paul Carr's three-movement A Very English Music (with the "very English" subtitles Cuckmere Haven, Cornish Air, and The Hunt Gathering). Philip Lane's string arrangement of Peter Warlock's beloved Christmas carol Bethlehem Down is a gem, and William Lloyd Webber's Waltz in E minor is a delightfully skittish, meandering take on the traditional dance.


Most sophisticated musically are Lionel Sainsbury's Two Nocturnes and Malcolm Lipkin's From Across La Manche, the latter a substantial (15-plus minutes) work from 1998 that's thoroughly of its idiom, full of good, skillfully developed ideas, and deserving of serious attention by orchestras, listeners, and concert programmers. And thankfully, Gavin Sutherland and his Royal Ballet Sinfonia have chosen to give all of these works their own careful, enthusiastic attention, resulting in one more well-played, eminently listenable addition to this ongoing series (Classicstoday has reviewed three of the earlier releases--see Search Reviews). Highly recommended--and fine sound too!
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Includes work(s) by Thomas Roseingrave. Ensemble: Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Conductor: Gavin Sutherland.

The fourth volume in Naxos’s highly praised series of Debussy’s Orchestral Works presents music drawn from three of his theatrical ventures and from one of his Prix de Rome entries. The prelude, fanfares and four symphonic fragments from Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien were taken for concert performance from Debussy’s incidental music for Gabriele D’Annunzio’s scandalous mystery play. While rarely heard today, the ‘danced legend’ Khamma, set in ancient Egypt, and incidental music for Shakespeare’s King Lear, provide suitably atmospheric music, as do the Cortège et air de danse from The Prodigal Son, the cantata which gained Debussy the Prix de Rome in 1884.

The two main works on this recording are among the peaks of twentieth-century Norwegian orchestral music.

Classical Music

DEBUSSY Images. Pour le piano: Sarabande (orch. Ravel). Danse (orch. Ravel). Marche écossaise. La plus que lente • Jun Märkl, cond; Lyon Natl O • NAXOS 8.572296 (59:45)


This is the third volume in a series of Debussy’s orchestral music from the Lyon orchestra under its young German conductor; I haven’t heard the other two, but on this evidence I want to.


Images gets off to a good start with a Gigues of smooth, rounded, refined sonorities—little or no hint here of those tangy, fruity, acidic French orchestral timbres of a bygone era (still well in evidence in, e.g., Martinon’s EMI Debussy recordings of the 1970s). Rhythmic and dynamic detail is sharply observed. Phrases are beautifully shaped, with plenty of breathing space, building impressively to the tragic climax.


Ibéria is absolutely first-rate, displaying a masterly integration of the work’s many subtle tempo changes, in the service of Debussy’s incomparably atmospheric evocations: e.g., in “Par les rues et par les chemins,” the transition from sun-drenched glitter to the mysterious, unsettlingly shadowy world of the central part. “Les parfums de la nuit” is taken slowly (9:18; compare Boulez’s briskly efficient 7:30), with beautifully swung habanera rhythms. “Le matin d’un jour de fête” relishes to the full both the majestic, dazzling luminosity of the movement’s outer sections and the quirky eccentricity of its central adventures. I don’t know if Jun Märkl is a string player by training, but throughout he achieves an amazing variety of string sounds and articulations reminiscent of the great string-playing maestros of the past—above all, Monteux, and his classic 1963 version with the LSO (Philips). Listen to the extraordinary care Märkl lavishes over such details such as the violas’ taking over the ostinato in the central nocturnal procession of “Par les rues” ( léger et rythmé , and suddenly rather sinister-sounding in its new surroundings); the darkly delicate swaying of the divided violas’ and cellos’ introduction of the sinuous habanera in “Les parfums”; or the electrifying crescendos of the “giant guitar” effect in “Le matin.”


The performance of Rondes de printemps is spacious and finely detailed, holding tempo and power in reserve for an exciting quickening of the pulse in the coda.


All in all, these Images easily stand comparison to the best of the digital era. They come across as less self-conscious than Rattle/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI, with the British maestro’s characteristically imaginative drawing of detail—in Gigues , for instance, chillier northern mists, and a stronger sense of mounting desperation). On the other hand, they sound more emotionally engaged than Boulez/Cleveland (DG, in a gorgeously nuanced sonic tapestry dispatched with cool, patrician elegance).


Märkl lavishes just as much care on the short pieces, from the gorgeous kaleidoscope of marble tints in Ravel’s orchestration of the Sarabande to the swirling mists of the Marche écossaise, whose engaging Celtic camp conceals many touches of real Debussyan harmonic alchemy. The sinuous rubato of La Plus que lente ’s slow waltz (complete with exotically twanging cimbalom) is teased out to the manner born.


The recording is resonant and spacious, a natural concert hall balance with outstanding perspective and depth, and no artificial highlighting of detail. This conductor/orchestra partnership is clearly something out of the ordinary, and I’ll be watching for more from them. At the price, the disc is a terrific bargain, whether you’re a newcomer to these pieces or a seasoned collector of multiple versions.


FANFARE: Boyd Pomeroy

Classical Music

This collection of piano music is a welcome reminder of the many fascinating stylistic strands that colour George Enescu' work. Seriously under-rated today, he exerted a powerful influence on all those who came under his spell.

Classical Music

JOACHIM Violin Concertos: in G, op. 3; in d, op. 11, “in the Hungarian Style” • Suyoen Kim (vn); Michael Halász, cond; Staatskapelle Weimar • NAXOS 8.570991 (65:57)


From a position of near-obscurity in the early 1960s (at least in so far as recordings went), Joseph Joachim’s Hungarian Concerto received a lift-off from Charles Treger’s early complete recording with the Louisville Orchestra (Louisville LS 705) and from Aaron’s Rosand’s more brilliant but cut-down version on a Vox LP, reissued many times; while Takako Nishizaki recorded Joachim’s Third Concerto for Marco Polo (now available on Naxos 8.554733).


That leaves the First Concerto, a one-movement affair lasting about 20 minutes from the early 1850s, when Joachim had hardly reached or passed the age of 20. Already the work displays a certain individuality: Joachim integrated the violin’s first entry into the opening tutti, after which initial statement the orchestra continues on its own. The solo part offered its youthful composer a great number of opportunities for virtuoso display, but the Concerto’s high symphonic seriousness sets it apart from more display-oriented vehicles written for their own use by his contemporaries Ernst and Wieniawski. In its harmonic and melodic style, so heavily tinged with nostalgia, the work resembles the first (or only) movements of Bruch’s later works (such as his Allegro appassionato and, especially, his Third Concerto). Suyoen Kim, producing a slender but pure tone in all registers (but with a steelier core on the G-string) from a 1742 Camillus Camilli, nevertheless projects the mix of pyrotechnical excitement and poignant lyricism the score demands. Joachim exerted a strong influence on the history of violin playing through his students, who included personalities as diverse as Jenö Hubay, Bronislaw Huberman, and Leopold Auer (who, having studied with him for two years, claimed that Joachim had opened his eyes). If the Concerto seems to wander, that’s neither Kim’s fault nor Halász’s.


The Second Concerto, “in the Hungarian style” has been described as the most difficult of concerted works for the violin (although certainly not for the listener); it requires strength and stamina as well as sustained brilliance, demanding a very occasional sacrifice of tonal beauty to achieve the requisite tonal strength. Kim demonstrates a rock-solid technique and the same compound of brilliance and warmth she displayed in the composer’s First Concerto, while the Halász and the Orchestra find both imposing rhetoric and human warmth in the orchestral part (as in the First Concerto, the engineers have balanced the solo and orchestra parts, creating a striking profile for the former against the highly detailed backdrop of the latter). Both soloist and orchestra emphasize the Concerto’s overt ethnicity (an element perhaps most obviously missing from alternative recordings by Treger, Rosand, Elmar Oliveira (Masters 27, 15:3), Rachel Barton Pine (Cedille 90000 068, 26:6), and Christian Tetzlaff (Virgin 502109, 31:6), all of whose readings nevertheless realized a great deal of the Concerto’s potential—except for Treger’s, which fell somewhat short of the work’s technical demands, and, in any case, isn’t any longer available. But Kim’s brilliant while offering a structurally synoptic view of this prolix Concerto (just over 45 minutes in this performance), brings an occasional poignancy that relieves the dramatic tension in the first movement—compared to Tetzlaff and Dausgaard’s thrustingly craggy symphonic reading of that movement, she and Halász take by comparison a more relaxed, expansive view (skirting the danger in such a long-winded movement, that offers no extra time to pause and smell the flowers). And after a long respite in the slow movement, a passage hardly bereft of difficulties and violinistic posturing, she opens the finale with an energetic flash that rivals Rosand’s and surpasses it in Hungarian verve.


For an imposing reading of the Hungarian Concerto, Kim’s and Halász’s could hardly be beat, and the program offers the relative novelty of the First Concerto, both in stunning performances. Strongly recommended to all kinds of listeners.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Also available on Blu-ray

The Beethoven cycle of the 21st century! Christian Thielemann joins forces with the prestigious Wiener Philharmoniker in a unique and monumental project BEETHOVEN 9, their first-ever recording of all 9 Symphonies in full high definition and Surround Sound. This recording from the Golden Hall of Vienna´s Musikverein is accompanied by nine(!) hour-long documentaries, one on each symphony, featuring Christian Thielemann and Germany´s most eminent music critic, Prof. Joachim Kaiser. From insights into Beethoven´s musical thinking to interpretational comparisons, including excerpts form legendary performances by Karajan, Bernstein, Böhm, Järvi etc., to historical perpsectives – no aspect of Beethoven´s symphonic oeuvre will remain untreated! This 2 DVD-set or Blu-ray contains Beethoven Symphonies 4, 5 & 6 and the Documentaries about Symphonies 4, 5 & 6.

Recorded live at the Goldener Saal der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna

including:
Discovering Beethoven
with Joachim Keiser and Christian Thielemann
one-hour long documentary for each symphony

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0 (Documentaries, PCM Stereo)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese
Running time: 133 mins (performances)

Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin in concert in Berlin, Vienna, and New York. Also included is a 22 minute documentary on the musical world of Mahler as seen by Barenboim and Pierre Boulez.

HERBERT VON KARAJAN
In Rehearsal and Performance

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219 (Rehearsal and Performance)

Yehudi Menuhin, violin
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Antonín Dvo?ák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, "From the New World" (Rehearsal and Performance)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Recorded in 1966.

Filmed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

Combining the forces of two of the 20th century´s greatest musicians – Yehudi Menuhin and Herbert von Karajan in their only recorded performance together – this magnificent programme marks a high point in filmed classical music. Both features, Mozart´s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Dvorák´s “New World” Symphony, were directed by master film-maker and long-time Karajan collaborator Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages of Fear).

bonus:
- Herbert von Karajan in conversation with Yehudi Menuhin (on Mozart, in English) and Prof. Joachim Kaiser (on Dvo?ák, in German)

Special bonus feature:
- Previously unreleased rehearsal session prior to Violin Concerto No. 5!

Picture format: NTSC 4:3 B/W (mastered from an HD source, original filmed in 35mm)
Sound format: PCM Stereo / PCM Mono (rehearsal)
Subtitles: English (Kaiser interview) / German (Menuhin interview)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 69 mins (performance) + 38 mins (rehearsal)
No. of DVDs: 1

Also available on Blu-ray

The Beethoven cycle of the 21st century!
Christian Thielemann joins forces with the prestigious Wiener Philharmoniker in a unique and monumental project BEETHOVEN 9, their first-ever recording of all 9 Symphonies in full high definition and Surround Sound. This recording from the Golden Hall of Vienna´s Musikverein is accompanied by nine(!) hour-long documentaries, one on each symphony, featuring Christian Thielemann and Germany´s most eminent music critic, Prof. Joachim Kaiser. From insights into Beethoven´s musical thinking to interpretational comparisons, including excerpts form legendary performances by Karajan, Bernstein, Böhm, Järvi etc., to historical perpsectives – no aspect of Beethoven´s symphonic oeuvre will remain untreated! This 3 DVD-set contains Beethoven Symphonies 7, 8 & 9 and the Documentaries about Symphonies 7, 8 & 9.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 7, 8 and 9

Annette Dasch, soprano
Mihoko Fujimura, mezzo-soprano
Piotr Beczala, tenor
Georg Zeppenfeld, bass

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Christian Thielemann, conductor

Recorded live at the Goldener Saal der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna
including:
Discovering Beethoven
with Joachim Keiser and Christian Thielemann
one-hour long documentary for each symphony

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0 (Documentaries, PCM Stereo)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese
Running time: 157 mins (concert) + 169 mins (documentaries)
No. of DVDs: 3

Peter Breiner's arrangements of music from these two operas succeed on a number of levels. First, the two works offer a great deal of symphonic music to work with (the ballets in Vixen, and the overture and pantomime in House). Second, he has arranged the excerpts very intelligently for continuous listening. In the Vixen Suite it's great to hear the scene in Act 3 with the baby foxes, and it makes an excellent lead-in to the final bars. Similarly, the preludes to the second and third acts of House are nicely integrated into lengthier tracts of music.

Yes, I have a couple of quibbles. The added percussion is completely unnecessary: why all the triangle in the Vixen suite? Obviously there's nothing wrong with substituting instruments for vocal lines, or filling out the texture of bare accompaniments, but Breiner gets a bit carried away in spots (though certainly not worse than Janácek's early arrangers, Vaclav Talich included).

As a conductor, Breiner is almost totally successful. Occasionally his tempos drag a bit, as in the "Eagle, King of the Forests" music in House, or in the closing scene of the Vixen's first act--it ought to be mayhem personified, but here it's simply too careful. Elsewhere, everything goes very well, with the New Zealand Symphony making a more positive impression here than in earlier releases in this series. Perhaps it's at least partly due to the generally more colorful orchestration, which the engineering projects to vivid effect. Strongly recommended.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Also available on Blu-ray

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis was performed on 13 and 14 February, 2010 at the traditional memorial concert to commemorate the bombardement of Dresden during the last weeks of World War II. Under Christian Thielemann, the Staatskapelle Dresden proved itself exeptionally qualified to master this work´s magnificent challenges. Thielemann “conjured up the gigantic cosmos of the Missa with such lightness and grace that its mystery seemed to reveal itself”, wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. No less remarkable was the fabulously homogeneous solo quartet formed of El?na Garan?a, Krassimira Stoyanova Michael Schade, Franz-Josef Selig.

Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Japanese
Booklet: English, German, French
No. of Discs: 1
Run time: 90 minutes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Picture: NTSC, 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo, PCM 5.1
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

During his long and energetic life, Ignaz Joseph Pleyel distinguished himself as a composer, publisher and piano manufacturer. His versatility, one of the keys to his survival in the turbulent years of the French Revolution, is also to be found in abundance in his vast musical output. This recording features two scintillating symphonies and Pleyel’s only authentic concerto for flute; all three works amply illustrate the reason why he achieved such an unprecedented level of popularity in the last two decades of the 18th Century.

A new benchmark for Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony.

What a far cry this recording of the Rachmaninov Second Symphony is from the old Detroit Symphony recording by Paul Paray, as I remember it. That was lean to the point of being bare and, while exciting enough, it lacked any kind of romantic ardor. The exact opposite was the recording I grew up with and still have on LP, Eugene Ormandy’s with the Philadelphia Orchestra. That was very lush and string-heavy with plenty of portamento that left one wallowing in sheer sound. One wasn’t aware of any of the counter-melodies by the winds, only the swooping strings! On CD my favorite was Andrew Litton’s with the Royal Philharmonic on Virgin that seemed a better balance of the score’s elements. I also appreciated both of André Previn’s accounts, the EMI for his dynamic interpretation, and the Telarc for its splendid sound. I have never cared much for Ashkenazy’s Concertgebouw recording on Decca, which I found rather coarse sounding, although I have liked his other Rachmaninov discs a great deal. Then, like William Hedley, in his review of the present disc, I received as a BBC Music Magazine cover disc the BBC Philharmonic recording with Edward Downes. I discarded my Litton recording and have kept the Downes ever since. However, unlike Mr. Hedley, I will now replace that recording with this new one — a performance that has everything for me except for the first movement repeat. I do not at all mind the missing repeat, as the first movement is long enough without it and it does not really add anything except length.
 
What’s so special about this performance is the perfect balance between the lush melodies in the strings and the delectable wind counter melodies and solos. Slatkin’s tempos seem to me to be just about perfect, too, although one could argue that he takes the second movement a bit on the fast side. Nonetheless, it works well. The performance never stagnates and the symphony is the better for it. One could not ask for warmer strings or more dynamism in the rhythms. However, it is the sheer vitality of this account that causes me to prefer it to the Downes. Credit for this is due not just to the conductor, but especially to the world-class playing of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. I have heard them over the years and they have never sounded as good as they do on this CD. Based on this, the DSO is up there with the best that America has to offer. One not-so-small thing I should also point out is that Slatkin does not allow a spurious timpani thwack at the end of the first movement (neither did Downes) and sticks to the score as written. Furthermore, Naxos has captured this performance in sound that is both rich and clear, and very natural. The applause at the end of this live account is fully justified. I wanted to cheer along with them. It was a good idea for the insert to list the orchestra’s personnel, as they really deserve the credit. Keith Anderson’s notes preceding the listing are also exemplary.
 
As a bonus, the CD begins with the well-loved Vocalise in a sensitive performance that matches that of the symphony. Litton also included that on his recording. Pace Mr. Hedley, this new recording of Rachmaninov’s Second is now my benchmark.

-- Leslie Wright, MusicWeb International

Here's a live performance of the Second Symphony that really lives up to the expectations of a live event: exciting, spontaneous, and impulsive, but also beautifully shaped and extremely well played. Leonard Slatkin's Rachmaninov cycle during his early years in St. Louis represented one of his finest efforts for Vox, so there's no question that he knows the music well. But this performance is in another league entirely. First of all, he doesn't mess with Rachmaninov's percussion parts, and believe me that's a good thing. There's no nasty timpani thwack at the end of the first movement, no extra cymbal crashes in the finale--it's just what the man wrote, and wrote so well.

This is a small detail, but Slatkin is no less adept in addressing the big picture. The first movement, urgently flowing, rises to a huge climax, probably the best since Temirkanov/EMI, assisted by some terrific brass playing. The scherzo is very quick, and hugely exciting. The return to the opening theme after the central fugato and march is unforgettable. Slatkin never lets the Adagio bog down or turn soggy; it's fresh and lyrical, while the finale is just plain thrilling, with the horns and trumpets aptly celebratory in the main theme and the strings playing their collective hearts out in the big tune at the end. The sonics are excellent, crowd noise is minimal, and the Vocalise makes a nice filler. Terrific!

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Reznicek's Symphony No. 5, subtitled "Dance Symphony", is a hoot. Its four movements comprise a polonaise, czardas, ländler, and tarantella--but don't think for a minute that they trip along lightly. Like Rachmaninov in his Symphonic Dances, Reznicek evidently had in mind a sort of "dance of death" program (indeed, the piece was choreographed as a ballet). Imagine a huge orchestral fresco on the order of Strauss' Elektra, only without the voices, and you'll get the picture.

The Second Symphony, the "Ironic", couldn't be more different. It's perky jeu d'esprit scored for classical orchestra--light and almost inconsequential, but full of sly humor that may take a couple of hearings in order to come across clearly. In a sense this is musician's music, the sort of thing a very experienced composer would write to amuse himself, and perhaps his colleagues, and it won't be to all tastes, though it's certainly not difficult to listen to. Indeed, the most ironic thing about it, like Mahler's Fourth, which it resembles in some respects, is its false naivety.

The performance of the Fifth Symphony is big, gutsy, and colorful, as the score demands, but the Second's chamber-like textures and reduced orchestration clearly tests the mettle of the Bern Symphony players, principal winds especially. It's one thing to make a big noise, with massed strings, brass, and percussion all blasting away with abandon, and quite another to project a work consisting largely of delicate, solo melodic threads. The players cannot have known this music all that well, and the outer movements of the "Ironic" strike the ear as frankly under-rehearsed--under-tempo and lacking in the requisite sparkle. Absent a score I can't say exactly by how much the performance fails to realize Reznicek's evident intentions, but that at least is how it sounds. So while the Fifth Symphony deserves your attention, the Second requires a bit more indulgence, although I am still happy to recommend this disc as yet further evidence of the composer's talent and undeserved neglect. The engineering is very good too.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Jonathan Nott’s Mahler cycle has now reached the fourth installment. Recordings have already been issued of the First Symphony, the Fifth Symphony and the Fourth. This is the first in the series to come my way.

Before considering the performance I think a few words about the recording itself may be helpful – I listened to these hybrid SACDs as conventional CDs. When I first started listening I thought that the sound appeared almost too close. In fact, I found that my ears soon adjusted as the performance continued and that I didn’t find the closeness to be as much of an issue on further hearings. I suppose the effect is rather akin to sitting just a few rows back from the stage in the concert hall. The orchestra sounds very ‘present’. There certainly seems to be a good spread of sound from one side of the platform, as it were, to the other but I’m less sure that there’s adequate front-to-back perspective. Another feature of the recording is that Nott has divided his violins left and right – of which I heartily approve. However, until the finale, where the strings dominate the scoring for much of the time, I couldn’t hear much of the viola, cello or double bass lines. In fact the strings as a whole are too easily swamped by the wind and brass sections in the first three movements.

For comparison I put on Simon Rattle’s Berliner Philharmoniker recording, which I so much admired in 2008 (see review by Tony Duggan). Here too the recording is fairly close but much more inner string detail is evident. I strongly suspect that the Tudor engineers have used a limited microphone array in an effort to present a truthful concert hall sound image whereas the EMI team have probably used multiple microphones placed within or above the orchestra in order to capture much more detail. I think the Tudor sound does indeed present the sort of sound that you’d hear in a concert hall – and Mahler’s scoring is very often wind- and brass-heavy – and it depends whether you want a recording for home listening to give you a concert hall perspective or whether you want as much detail as possible.

So you might want to sample the recording before purchasing. However, even if the sound is not quite your ideal – and, as I say, my ears adjusted quite quickly – sonic considerations aren’t everything here for Nott leads a fine performance of this magnificent, complex symphony.

He takes a fairly spacious view of I. In fact, at 29:46 his is one of the longest performances I know. Rattle is slightly quicker overall (28:56) but it’s interesting to note that some, though by no means all, conductors of the previous generation have taken less time over this movement. Barbirolli, for example, took 26:53 in his famous EMI Berlin recording, while Kubelik’s live 1975 reading (Audite) took 26:44. The celebrated 1938 Bruno Walter recording flashes by in 24:47. Have Mahler performances broadened over the years?

Nott may be spacious but throughout the movement his control and concentration are impressive. His reading isn’t as passionate as Rattle can be at times; it’s more patient. There were one or two occasions when I thought his speeds were just a little bit too measured but as a whole his reading is impressive. The climaxes are thrust home – at these points one has the impression that the orchestra is playing flat out – but the quiet passages often impress. For example the ghostly passage between 8: 01 and 9:47 is imaginatively presented with lots of good detail – I like the distanced muted horns, for instance. I think it would be fair to say that sometimes the violins sound just a little thin in alt and the string bass line is certainly underpowered – no doubt because one is so used, with many other conductors, to hearing the cellos and basses prominently through the right hand speaker. But, set against that I must say straightaway that much of the playing is vivid, the orchestra’s response is totally committed and there’s a lot of fine solo playing to admire. I have heard more dramatic, angst-ridden accounts of this amazingly rich movement but drama isn’t the whole story by any means and Nott’s account is very convincing and never less than wholly musical. He seems to see the whole movement in one long sweep and I admire his way with it very much.

The two inner movements go very well. There’s a good deal of sharply etched, piquant playing in II. Nott paces the music very well and he judges the many tempo modifications expertly. His reading of III is dynamic and thrusting. He and the engineers bring out a great deal of the teeming contrapuntal detail in the score. The trio (from 5:55) is taken at a suitably relaxed pace. This is nostalgic music but I like the fact that Nott never wallows in the sentiment; on the contrary, forward momentum is nicely maintained – and praise too for the solo trumpeter, whose silvery tone is just right. When the Rondo resumes (10:23) the music is turbulent and exciting right to the last bar.

The strings come into their own in the finale. The opening paragraphs are full-toned but the emotion is not overdone – Nott doesn’t play his cards too soon. The string playing is very good, the tone just weighty enough - and now we do hear a satisfyingly strong bass line. One rather special moment occurs between 4:05 and 4:54 where Nott obtains the most atmospheric playing imaginable from his strings. At this point the bass line is spectral with a wafer-thin violin line on top.

Nott unfolds the finale compellingly and the Bamberg strings and horn section in particular do him proud. Once again, this isn’t perhaps the most overtly emotional reading I’ve heard but the patience – perhaps even a degree of reserve? – brings its own rewards. Nott’s ability to take the long view and to build the movement incrementally means that when we reach the sustained ardent passage that lies at the heart of the movement (14:18 – 17:03) the effect is all the greater. The closing pages of this movement are always a huge test for players and conductor alike. Here the test is passed very successfully. During the last four minutes or so, starting with the second violin entry at 21:07, the music gradually winds down, all passion spent.

This Mahler Ninth is a very fine achievement. A host of great conductors and leading orchestras have essayed this symphony on disc over the years and though the seventeen versions on my own shelves don’t quite go from A to Z they do go from Barbirolli to Walter. This new version can certainly contend with the best of them and it’s one to which I’m sure I shall be returning frequently in the future.

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

REVIEW:

Yes, this work is a symphony, at least as much as is Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, Tchaikovsky’s Manfred, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar, or Liszt’s Faust. Sibelius himself referred to it as such, and in fact claimed that he really had written nine symphonies (including Kullervo), despite the fact that this one got broken up into its constituent parts early on in its history. There have been some excellent modern performances of the complete work, including those by Salonen, Järvi (twice), Saraste, and best of all, this one (Vänskä’s turned out to be one of his big disappointments).

This performance has several things going for it. First of all, Segerstam is himself a violinist and he pays special attention to Sibelius’ string writing, always crucial. Those acres of tremolo have to sound purposeful, and the sheer texture and timbre of the string playing here leaves just about every other version in the dust. Second, Segerstam has the gift of touching in subtle details of color and rhythm without breaking the back of a phrase. You can hear this immediately at the start of Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari, where he catches the cross-rhythm in Sibelius’ writing as in no other performance (sound sample below). Third, Segerstam places Lemminkäinen in Tuonela second in playing order, which was Sibelius’ original idea and which works better, in my opinion, than reserving second position for The Swan of Tuonela.

None of this would matter were the interpretations not outstanding expressively, but they certainly are. Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari is the most passionate performance on disc; Lemminkäinen in Tuonela the grimmest. The Swan has atmosphere to burn, with a superb English horn solo; and the finale, Lemminkäinen’s Return, is tremendously exciting but weighty enough to serve as a true symphonic finale. The whole production is magnificently recorded, and topped off by a considerable bonus in the form of a slow, brooding, incredibly intense rendering of Tapiola. A great disc.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com