in adaptations for children is often ignored that Jim Hawkins with a pistol to kill a pirate. So even if the public classical music fan associated to Mahler symphonic world poses ephebes in Venetian Lido, complexity, modernity and wealth of orchestration involving a veritable universe in itself, " The symphony is the world! The symphony must embrace everything . "
The 9 th symphony of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) is a work that belongs to the romantic mythology has stimulated all sorts of subjective interpretations. Much has been written about the reflection on death which is the symphony, imbued with the certainty of one's own death or that of his beloved young daughter, which occurred shortly before. Gather the feeling torn between personal resignation to the passage of time, the plight of his marriage to Alma (Mahler writes in the manuscript of the score: " Oh, lost days of youth!, Oh, scattered love! ") and self-consciousness of romantic symphonic conclusion of Germany: musical works of the past that he loves, the values \u200b\u200bfor which he has lived and created, including sensitivity to perceive all this fall, with him into oblivion. And indeed it is impossible to understand fully the corpus Mahler without reference to his biography, because life and work are intimately linked: the expression of his most intimate longings (loneliness beyond joy or sorrow, dismissed without bitterness, longing residence) will create a sort of musical novel, transforming and deforming the thematic material (the characters) as the story unfolds, organically, in a process of construction and deconstruction of memory not far from the portrait of mental life of Ulysses . We will let each player is setting out its vision of the most complex of Mahlerian works as the numerous endorsements, technical and expressive, which Mahler picked up in the score, rather than narrow, have created endless possible readings. Formally
the symphony has four movements associated with an unorthodox guise: two fast movements (Landler in C major and Rondo-Burleske in the least) framed by two slow (Andante comodo in D major and Adagio in D flat major), unusually in all different shades. They are also articulated in discontinuous, even within each movement, although they recall or anticipate all the others.
The first movement Andante comodo is apparently set to traditional schemes such as the sonata (development and exposure), round (return and variations) or lied (alternating), but technically and expressively glowing novelty is anticipating structures will need to develop the next generation. Hear the first notes left five little reasons that will organize timbres, durations and intensities on the ruins of Mahler's own quotes: "Once upon a time hue "seem to sing, and grow new, compelling. The alternation between the assertion of a lyrical and nostalgic voice and the denial of its expression, provides a way to return pared to its denial, increasingly tense until the potentially endless cycle is broken by a climax understood as a disaster when the line feature and melodic dissonance is overwhelmed by the vertical, "with full power " demand Mahler. Only then orchestral forces are reduced to a chamber music group to sing the cadenza dies with reiterations of the first soft notes.
There can be more brutal contrast in switching to the second movement, marked " at a time convenient Landler" in the quiet alternating dances (but not the least happy notion associated with the term) more rustic with a lively waltz, and continuous breaks lending intensity and thematic and rhythmic elements. This scherzo, which was described earlier symphonies by Mahler as " a nostalgic dream of past happiness " and that at its end has the aroma of the classic minuet, this time is parodied wild, ironic, rough, macabre.
The Rondo significantly -called " Burleske "- is marked as" very stubborn "and contains a counterpoint (unorthodox) of an unknown density in Mahler. Relentlessly dissonant, demonic to the limits of instrumental pop, Bach contrapuntal character developed that considered both Mahler. Music (dis) articulated through small thematic cells, with moments in which complete changes of texture and sonority (marked by ascending glissandi violin or harp) are tested and invariably rejected. In its impossible attempt to integrate such disparate voices (the vulgar mockery of everything that lies in the metropolis Vienna) culminates in what according to the way it should be the final, titanic climax (but thoughtfully placed in the wrong place) ... and then peace comes, absolute and overwhelming.
The Adagio returns to the depths of the first movement, becoming a central times in parentheses: the opening bars connecting a lonely lament the dildo song (simple, diatonic) of the strings. The dark matter appears naked serious bassoon; certainly ruthless conquest. As the reasons advanced, threatening and ambiguity through every possible color, prophesy to Berg on the simultaneous use of violins in the higher register and low in more serious. The last page, Adagissimo , where the score demands " dying," doubting, "" extremely slow "is a discourse with a phasing bruckneriano, a progressive fading of the sound field in silence ethereal yet leaves a feeling of suspension that resolution, comfort, and not despair, as if the long awaited battle ended in retreat and not in defeat. Appointments to succeed Das Lied von der Erde (eternally ") but the most significant reference occurs just before the sound fades away, when the strings invoke the phrase associated Kindertotenlieder the abode of the children: " The day is beautiful those heights."
Composed during the summer of 1909, the score requires three flutes (one piccolo), four oboes (one English horn), five clarinets, four bassoons (one contrabassoon), four horns , three trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, timpani, percussion, glockenspiel, bells, bass, harp and string ensemble.
A comprehensive review of the discography of the course work must begin with his first recording in Vienna in 1938, a few weeks of being invaded by Nazi Germany's army (Bruno Walter and most of the teachers who formed the Philharmonic fled or were expelled then.) Interpretation which flashes above all the urgency of the tempi (but remember that the automatic piano rolls recorded by Welte-Mignon in 1905 Mahler himself stand out much faster tempi employees today). Thus, agility and fluidity detrimental to the emotional quality. Nor is certainly a model of refined timbre and sometimes gives the impression that the work exceeds the technical capacity of the modern orchestra in this repertoire and quasi-degenerate. Irresistible the dislocations in the Rondo, in which the society is reduced to shreds. However, this incandescent historical document (released by EMI, Naxos, Dutton) of sound and watered amazacotado coughs public knowledge is required, as Walter, a student and beloved disciple of Mahler himself was responsible for the first execution work (dedicated to him) in 1912, and can probably closer to how it sounded in that release. In his later recording eighty-five years, the understanding and acceptance of Mahler's work reveals for the first time, its full meaning in this case leading to the Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Sony, 1961): Shape the sentences tend to slow them down in search of a dreamy expression, peaceful, nostalgic, deeply felt, "Adagio the solution should be like a cloud in the sky blue ." In the central movement tempo lightens showing its roots in a neat imperial Vienna, to which academic parody. Recording, a constrained, is accompanied by an interview and an interesting sequence of trials.
Although John Barbirolli has a live version (New York Philharmonic Special Editions, 1962) of stroke recorded thicker and worse, we will choose here published by EMI (1964): Lyric, warm, resplendent in beauty, but dull and distorted by the lack of tragic and dramatic intensity. Sometimes seems to hesitate fraternizing with the composer's personal torture and deductions used to enhance the sense of longing, the rubato to harness the full impact climax, always in style cantabile, gentle and flowing. The Berlin Philharmonic is not presented here the absolute precision and virtuosity that one expects in this difficult and complex work, except in the final adagio, where it is wonderfully poignant. Barbirolli held that this movement could not be played during the day, so the effort scheduled for a special session by Night and treachery, he left for posterity and making something hazy atmospheric sound.
The program offered by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall on September 16, 1966 (BBC Legends) was the workhorse for the leadership of notable Mahler was always Jasha Horenstein. Fierce and menacing, impressive and disturbing, this is a miracle in which the orchestra is used as a vast chamber group, scraping, and tormented, which feels like Death foreseeable reality. Óigase how in his desperate search lacera serious area of \u200b\u200bmetals and woods, to cut up the climax in measures 314-318. Or how in the scherzo fleshing (no consolation) and grunting asperities other directors mask, emphasizing the irony and bitterness. " My symphonies express my whole life. I've dumped on them all that I have lived and suffered . " Well this is the darker side of soul Mahler, according to the definition of the symphony that was Deryck Cooke. The disastrous third movement, chaos tuning and mismatches, better to say little. Contribute to the fiction of the concert the audience's applause at the end of each movement (apart from coughing, moving, pushing and scratching each other). Nothing that you can not fix an audio editor to use a personal copy of a night owl and intimate . Version unforgettable sound too bad only average.
anecdote is significant Otto Klemperer recalled his participation in trials of the Seventh Symphony in Prague in 1908: " Every day after the test, Mahler had the full score home to touch up, polishing, improve. " One wonders what would have made changes to the works that Mahler never heard. Sure would have loved the recording of the New Philharmonia Orchestra (EMI, 1967): acid left. The austerity and clarity of musical architecture is paramount (built with columns and architraves there is no room for bows), each section folding down to the whole. The tempi are granite, steady, stoic, grim to the inevitable. In the central movements choose wide reading, coarse and massive, explained by his sense of humor and his personal conviction stone " There is no irony, sarcasm, resentment ... Only majesty of death." Takes amazing sound, performed with a single microphone placed above the head, giving it a single horizon of large widescreen clarity, revealing the characteristic antiphonal situation first and second violins, so dear to Mahler, in addition to recording step from the pages of the score and the huge Zapatazos with the teacher giving the entries. It is noteworthy that takes Klemperer chose interpretation of intensity and not by their (im) technical perfection. One of his best recordings, an emotional maelstrom, you can not say more: "Experiment so many things for a year and a half I can hardly talk about it. How might try to expose a crisis so terrible? . "
The recording session began with a few words carefully chosen, thanks for the previous evening and begin testing specific textures and details. Making full-motion-is absolutely perfect in technique and expression. The teacher smiled kindly, and raises his baton again, "Da capo ." Again, the miracle occurs and teachers watch in amazement. The teacher looks beatific and suggests a final attempt as he prepares the gesture: "Questa volta per noi ." Of course the latter will take the recording to integrate at least eight wins international awards for album of the year 1976: Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (DG). Beautiful version, soft and romantic, elegant and delicate, tempi slower than most records, emotionally honest. Approximation of great encouragement and continuous pulse, avoiding portamenti and chiaroscuro accused studiously, we would say antimahleriana. With great lyrical sophistication, building patiently and joy this music lover. The relative lack of contrast, violence and filth in the central movement is offset by the special attention to the middle tessitura of the rope, wood, highlighting aspects that are obscured in other interpretations. The Adagio is a contemplative song of deep spiritual resonance, a lament on the personal suffering gentle, hypnotic, docile before the end of the known: " Do my beliefs? I am a musician. That says it all. " The sound has all the clarity and purity required to accompany dignity.
Leonard Bernstein used to refer to " Our century is the century of death and its musical prophet Mahler" . Of the several occasions that led to the hard work will choose the one registered with the Berlin Philharmonic in concert groups (DG, 1979) the only time he took over the orchestra, at that time karajanizada more than ever. Popularized the hypothesis that the opening bars are an imitation of the arrhythmia of the heart sick, sentimental notion may play a mystical communion with the author who advocated Lenny. Such symbiosis (" the interpretation is perfect when I get the impression that I am the composer " and Bernstein had lost his wife a year earlier) gives a Dionysian intensity, anguish colorful and grotesque, eerie, pushing the musicians to out of tune with the music building to collapse to only the last straighten the lead time, exaggerating the many contradictions of Mahler's world, risking the volcanic rubato, in velvet verdirrojo glissandi. And is that Bernstein used to say that can never be overstated enough to Mahler. The Adagio where "Mahler pray for the restoration of life, hue, faith " is a beautiful final page in which the Berlin strings warm evaporated miraculously tempo (the realm of Bernstein called "musical silence ). Legendary is the inexplicable disappearance of the trombone section between bars 118-122, climax of the work, precisely where maximum power is required to full orchestra. Having said this, indisputable testimony to the world of the recording. Take spacious and aggressive sound.
Although the work had recorded just two years earlier (there wicked who claim that he was so shocked by version Bernstein did his Berliner Philharmoniker, who decided to use the training peculiar to record the work) embarked on a concert tour that ended this evening in the Philharmonie (DG, 1982). Karajan is so far from the grating of a Horenstein expressionism as histrionic emotionalism of Bernstein, and perhaps less ambitious reading, endorses the fact that Mahler never understood this work and his latest composition, and that began to outline 10 º symphony compulsively immediately after passing the clean score of the 9. Thus the biographical reality shows a conductor 49, so hyper as usual, with a hundred concerts scheduled in recent seasons, "'m thirsty for life and find the habit of living sweeter than ever." Therefore, Karajan understands that death here is not more than the obsessive theme and Mahler pursued throughout his life, and carefully examine details and textures, rounded edges. After the start innocent ambiguous grows a mixture of resignation and hope to hit the terror of consciousness of mortality given the maturity, plot in the central movement is an inevitable nightmare exponential acceleration toward self-destruction, and ends with a cold serena acceptance of death in the concluding coda, where everything shines with splendor the Apollonian beauty of the strings, the refinement of sound and tonal sophistication, which exquisitely hand-polished marble by Canova. But in this somewhat uniformed Mahler to Strauss, technical precision than human , many things remain the way, the emotional intensity, the tension ... Is this a curative therapy for panic Mahler? Recording of absolute clarity.
I have deliberately left without naming the various readings, which from an objective point of view, impossibly, have been performed this score. Not only is that (obviously) the disparity is less expressive, but are somewhat obscured by the latest commented. Thus, the Ceska Karel Ancerl Filharmonie (Supraphon, 1966): clean textures, without chiaroscuro highlights, but cold and rushed into the sediment that remains after listening (rather than the tempi ). Rafael Kubelik
shown more romantic and poetic, full and bright, textures and tempi light, without resorting to rubato, the slight variations in tempo, to highlight the expressiveness Mahler. Absence of an inner compulsion, beauty under the control of genuine symphonic structure. His two recordings with the Bayerischen Rundfunks Symphonieorchester (DG, 1967) and (Audit, live , 1975) are very similar in terms of interpretation, characterizing the studio version for a better sound.
The tonal qualities of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam emerge truly unique, with its acres woods and heartbreaking, under the direction of Bernard Haitink (Philips, 1969): dissecting the intricate sounds of walking , evocative and dreamlike in its coda, almost miraculous that it handles only the lyrical rondo episode, which empty Vanity Fair, combining structural integrity of the movement with its convoluted poetic beauty, the rare concentration in the slow tempo chosen from start to finish in the adage . Sober reflection on the human condition, emphasizes the intellectual side less emotional and personality Mahler. Structural coherence, order, containment, fluidity, clarity and unity in the exhibition, lucidly ultraobjetivo and circumspect, formally restricted, prosaic and earthly. Theatrical Do not look here or intimidating gestures presiding author's own interpretations (and should mind here his affinity with Nietzsche: " is only the dance when I read the symbol of the highest things ). Dutch room acoustics shown in all its splendor in this exemplary recording that offers an amazing balance between the orchestral sections.
Czech Philharmonic boasts a long tradition in these staves. The analytical capacity of Vaclav Newman (Supraphon, 1982) yields an austere style, we would say toilet, textures crystalline, occasionally slowing the tempo in the andante , evoking the tunes of childhood. Landler shear and repellent, occasionally aggressive. Heavily ironic in rondo . Natural simplicity and balance. (But Mahler requires it?)
With the Philharmonia Orchestra Giuseppe Sinopoli formidable regained its past level leggeriano (DG, 1993). In his personal exploration of the score makes a genuine version, different, deconstructionist in compulsive clarity of textures, in the literal and reverential faithfulness to detail the structure above symphonic, harmonic lighting anomalies at the expense of the horizontal line, messy if not schizophrenic, mannered phrasing, tortuous manipulation and gestural penetrating metals. Reflective in the first movement, where tectonic units based timbre with shimmering provide a sound chamber music (large scale). The interaction of idiosyncratic tempi ago to wander aimlessly Landler. The broad adagio balances your vision errant. Maybe not a first choice (for that is Klemperer, Bernstein, Giulini), but a very interesting new horizon. Take proper sound Analytical and crystal obtained by a microphone placement close to the lectern.
Great translator (and disciple) of the Second Viennese School The formidable radiologist might have been Pierre Boulez offers control of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (DG, 1995) a clear version of textures, maniac on the clarity and attention to detail, scrupulous in dynamic gradations ... but with very cantabile little sense, epidermal, frivolous, soda, guilty of indifference and chill in a final movement led urgent tempo, walteriano . Where are the pain and suffering, the sweetness that the author turned the pages? In short, a disappointment after his formidable 6 th ( time has not come ). Making sound is glorious.
is contempt Sergiu Celibidache supine on the symphonic Mahler: " Saca to graze his sheep in the morning, but end of day has no idea how to bring it back . " However, their particular conception of phenomenology and his extensive musical guide to the Münchner Philharmoniker bequeathed to it some unique characteristics: the singular control of orchestral dynamics, timbral refinement, the ability to sustain tempi unlikely. And James Levine was running this way in a public concert in 1999 and has been edited by Oehms Classics. Dense string section Munich, superb use of metals and drums in the cathartic climax. But it is in the final Adagio where the director proposes an extension of time which is almost a singular Einstein (compare these 32 minutes with 18 dedicated by Bruno Walter for the same movement). Because if you can not imagine new horizons, what more records? As for the pedigree of the orchestra, remember that Mahler himself premiered several of his symphonies at the controls of the training.
The extensive experience of Claudio Abbado in the music of the twentieth century together with the Berlin Philharmonic (DG, 1999) ensure exceptional orchestral response is immediately hampered by an artificial and experimental combination in the mixer, with continuously varying atmospheric spatial perception and the Philharmonie. The opening and closing of the microphones attached to various instrumental groups break down what should be a live performance espectuacular. Analytical looking for the essentials but naturally textured, carefully balanced with improvisatory air, makes a very restricted use of contrasts, not mired in the sentimental and gooey sludge (adorable) of Bernstein. At this point, dear reader, should know that this is not the record I would take me to a desert island. Let's ending.
has never sounded so feminine and soft, syncopated rhythm of three notes in the bass of the orchestra with the Symphony as born in the version of Riccardo Chailly (Decca, 2004). In this abstract construction of language, which leads to the instruments to speak, an intense love germinates pantheist, a passion fruit of conflict, where the tempi sedate have some maternal abandonment and seek a clarification of unparalleled detail and nuance, not never allow the threat to the overall integrity of the structure. In the central timber nightmares haunt us beautiful, insolent, unbeatable, with scrupulous attention to dynamics and phrasing. In his last performance with the Italian director is fantastic rendering of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where Mahler finally found an orchestra and an audience for their works. Truly exceptional technical process, with a uterine making sound, warm and comfortable, almost tangible in its tonal opulence, where the details are natural sounds (amazing bells).
all have our favorite recordings, depending on how we believe that music should sound, or what emotions they expect to find when listening to a disc. Hence the disappointment that flooded me when I see that the new recording of the Berliner Philharmoniker, this time with Simon Rattle on the podium (EMI, 2007) follows the same course in the last decade: making the extraordinary sound which play each complex texture may be, exposes new sounds, delicate and educated. But the superlative orchestral performance is unable by itself to consign to oblivion the squeak expressionist, the ferocity of the dynamics in the climax, the turbulent emotional stress, violence, disaster, which reveal the great horror directors of the past, and relegate the listener exhaustion. The tempi remain elastic quality, although less marked than in his previous recording for EMI (1993). And the onslaught continues: in recent months there have been two new documents that inform us of the symphony today's most important twentieth century. Too bad that both Alan Gilbert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (BIS, 2008) or Jonathan Nott with the Symphony Orchestra Bamberg (Tudor, 2008) posed no new ground in this multi-faceted, multi-faceted work, crucial in the history of music.
0 comments:
Post a Comment