Search - Mehta, Wiener Philharmoniker :: Bruckner: Symphony No.9

Monumental Bruckner from Youthful Mehta

D. Roth | Pleasant Hill, Ca | 07/28/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Record collectors active in the sixties and seventies will remember the three great Bruckner 9ths: Haitink's relentlessly focussed recording with the Concertgebouw Orchestra on Philips, Karajan's glowing account with the Berlin Philharmonic on DGG, and this massive,emotionally-charged, fabulously recorded performance on London with the Vienna Philharmonic led by 29 year-old Zubin Mehta.



Both outer movements are slower than usual, but even after many years this performance grabs you with both its tonal beauty and its Schoenbergian intensity. Listen to the other-worldy opening horn calls, the staggering first-movement coda, or the radiant third movement ending to hear a rare collaberation between an experienced orchestra and an inspiring conductor. There is also no question that the performance skirts brashness and vulgarity in the first movement development section, the main rhythmic motif on the scherzo, and most of all in the third movement triplet motif, where the horns blast away & bury the rest of the orchestra. Do not let this prevent you from hearing this beautiful disc!



When Mehta began making records in the sixties, his talents and magnetism promised a great career to come. These years may in fact have been his prime.



"

One of my favorite 9ths

King Lemuel | Puyallup, WA | 09/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disc may still be heard via the internet music service Rhapsody and used copies (both CD and LP) often can be bid on at Ebay. Time Life put out a 30 volume, 120 LP series called "The Great Men of Music " in the 1970s. This LP is included in the Bruckner 4 LP volume of that series along with Solti's Bruckner 7th with the Vienna Phil and Bruckner's Te Deum conducted by Mehta with the Vienna Phil. It is sad to see that not even used copies are available at Amazon. The Bruckner Great Men of Music series is often a great bargain at Ebay and places like Half Priced books.



The symphony is very well played and conducted. This is a great sounding analog recording. The first movement is a little slower than others I have heard but does not drag. I do not know what version of the score was used (Haas or Nowak) but some of the horn playing is a bit different than what I have heard. I have listened to this disc a few times and find it very enjoyable. The levels in the low sections are still high enough that I did not once ask "where did the music go?" and did not get the feeling that it just went into a black hole. (i.e. it is easy to hear and enjoy the numerous low sections as well as when the horns are blasting).



If you have Rhapsody or you bid at Ebay, this disc is worth going after and listening to. Some of my ninths sound very similar (Bruno Walter, Solti with the CSO, Barenboim with the CSO) but this one, especially some of the horn playing, is different and adds variety to my collection."

The young Mehta proving his promise

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 06/01/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like the reviewer below, I was there in the Sixties when this splashy, dynamically recorded Bruckner Ninth created a stir. the 29-year-old Mehta seemed to have the promise of a great conductor, but it wasn't to be. Again like the reviewer below, I think his best work came early on. This isn't a profound reading of the Ninth, although it was considered very slow at the time (and panned by Deryck Cooke in the Gramophone for that reason). The Vienna Phil. plays gorgeously, and Decca's engineers have laid out a banquet of lavish sound. But the rhythms are fairly slack, the tempos poke along, and despite the surface polish, brashness and vulgarity are exploited to create iinterest rather than emotional depth and instinctive sympathy with this great work. The Karajan recording from this era, now on DG Galleria, stands as one of the great ones, beating out both the Mehta and Haitink versions of the time by a long shot.



However, one shouldn't sell the virtues of this CD short. It is so incredibly well played and recorded that it stands as one of Mehta's best efforts over the past four decades."