Search - Gustav Mahler, Gilbert Kaplan, John Hugh Thomas :: Gilbert Kaplan Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"

Library choice!

MartinP | Nijmegen, The Netherlands | 01/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Even if you don't know the first thing about music notation, a quick perusal of a Mahler score will still leave you in no doubt that the man was a control freak. It must be hard for any conductor-composer to entrust the realisation of his works to others, and it must be sheer hell when you're such a perfectionist as Mahler was. He didn't leave anything to coincidence if he could help it; some pages are so dense with footnotes and instructions for the conductor that it's hard to read the music at all. You would expect that this would preclude any such thing as an interpretation of a Mahler symphony; rather, all these detailed instructions should yield fairly similar sounding results no matter who's conducting. We know of course from experience that this is not the case - far from it! Conductors have visions, styles and ego's pervasive enough to overrule even Mahler's most insistent instructions ("nicht zögern!", "KEIN ritenuto!").
That is why this recording by Kaplan is such a godsend. His activities on the rostrum have been greeted with polite interest at best among professional reviewers, but his amateur conducting has also been an easy target for derision. Yet he is an amateur in the true, 18th century meaning of the word: somebody with a passion for this single work so intense that merely listening to it, or worse, listening to what others were doing to it, was no longer enough. So he turned to conducting it himself, taking conducting lessons and hiring an orchestra and chorus for the occasion (something admittedly greatly facilitated by his millionaire status). All this in pursuit of a single goal: attaining a realisation of this score as close as possible to Mahler's intentions.
He has succeeded gloriously, as can be gauged from this disc, onto which he fortunately decided to commit his efforts. I would even go one step further and say that for me this is THE library version of Mahler 2. Here, for once, you get just about exactly what the score says - nothing more (well, sometimes a bit more on the strength of secondary sources), certainly nothing less. That may raise fears of a coolly objective, academic or doggedly analytical reading, but these fears are unfounded. Because being true to the score also implies being true to Mahler's inexhaustible array of expressive markings; you don't need to infuse this music with surplus emotions: it's all there already. Instead of "outmahlering Mahler", something Bernstein was famously good at (and, admittedly, often very effectively so), Kaplan prefers to invest his energy in getting to the core of Mahler's intentions by studying all available documentation on this work: letters, reviews, rehearsal notes. (For good measure he includes many of them in the booklets (yes, there are TWO, at least with the original IMP issue that I own), which must make this one of the most lavishly produced and well documented CDs ever.) What kind of sound did the composer intend for the bells? How large should the chorus be? How should certain pizzicati be executed? Which part of the accompaniment at the choral entry is optional? The result of this eminently sober, scholarly approach is nothing short of intoxicating. Details are moulded with the greatest care, but the big picture is never blurred by them. There are quiet moments full of poetry, but out of them rise climaxes of hair-raising intensity. The more operatic off-stage details are realised to great effect too, truly suggestive of heavenly legions approaching through wide open spaces. From his documentation Kaplan concludes that Mahler, though he didn't indicate this in the score, intended antiphonal horns and trumpets, which greatly enhances the effect. Some conductors refuse to use the possibilities that recording techniques offer and that Mahler surely would have relished; they stick to minimalist solutions and give the listener a bunch of brass players in the foyer rather than the Last Trump (it's only one of the misjudgments that greatly detract from Rattle's consistently over-praised recording).
The singing is excellent. Though it would be nonsense to claim that Urlicht has never been better sung than by Maureen Forrester (unfortunately, like many others, she commits the sin of `hinaufziehen' so abhorred by Mahler, on the final `Leben'), her warm, dusky voice suits the music well. The chorus are excellent, and so, throughout, is the orchestra.
The blazing final pages achieve something very rare: not only do they make the spine tingle (not too hard given such forces and these notes), they are also genuinely moving. This symphony only works if it can turn even the most confirmed atheist into a devout Catholic for its duration, and this version definitely does! You may want other recordings for their particular insights, even if these maybe tell you more about the conductor than about Mahler. In the Scherzo, Kaplan's clarinets do not sneer quite as sardonically as those in Bernstein's DG recording; and the dark, Gothic primitivism pervading Haitink's Berlin version is rather special too. However, such interpretations only yield their specific merits more easily when assessed against Kaplan's touchstone recording. And for the sound addicts: this is a sonic spectacular. I would be very surprised if the rich aural spectrum of this work has ever been reproduced more faithfully on disc. The recording is crisp and crystal clear, full of detail, and tremendously ample in its dynamics. The final climax is unlike any rendering you've ever heard before, with a tummy-wobbling organ and bells massive enough to make your neigbours believe it's Sunday morning! Buy this disc and wake them up!"

Excellent Version of Mahler's 2nd

Samhot | Star Land | 06/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, I'd have to agree with all of the gloriously positive reviews written below: this is probably the version of Mahler's 2nd symphony to own, if you were to only own one. The main reason I say this is because, like what other reviewers have stated, conductor Gilbert Kaplan has done his homework: trying to go EXACTLY by the book (or scores in this case), and come the CLOSEST he can to Mahler's own intentions. This could have possibly been a painstaking process since Mahler himself has changed and reworked parts of his scores in later times. But, this was not uncommon, since many composers (e.g. Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky) had made changes to their own scores quite often. Here, you don't get many of Bernstein's changes and exaggerations (nothing against Bernstein, but I'm a person who likes to hear the original composer's intended composition - not the conductor's composition), and the performances are crisp, clean and clear as ever, as opposed to Bernstein's version of the 2nd symphony found in his first cycle, which in parts seemed quite sloppy and forced.



This 83-minute symphony is mostly about the questioning of life and death. Do we go to heaven after we die? Do we go to hell? Are we reincarnated? Why do humans encounter pain and suffering? What is the meaning of life and our existence? These are some of the questions that Mahler seems to be posing through this intense symphony. When listening to this, or nearly anything by Mahler, it's as if you're traveling right through his troubled mind and soul. Describing bits of the symphony. The first movement twists and turns through a gargantuan of deep emotion and thought: brooding, ominous, threatening, violent and frightening, but not without beautiful, ethereal and soothing moments deflected off of each. After hearing this sprawling first movement alone, you will have been through such a wide-ranging and powerful experience, as to think that this was an entire symphony by itself. But, of course, there's the mostly lilting second movement to calm one down after the stormy first movement. And later on, you get the intense finale of the fifth movement featuring the choiral voices, which are very intense and piercingly moving.



I heartily recommend this version of Mahler's 2nd symphony if you don't own it. If you've been thinking about picking this up, don't think too much longer and pick it up."

Surprisingly Fantastic

Daniel Graser | Wappingers Falls, New York United States | 03/23/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Let's see, on this cd you have one of the best orchestras in the world, perhaps the greatest symphonic composer ever, and at the helm, a millionaire investment banker? However, Gilbert Kaplan is no slouch when it comes to Mahler and he does a fantastic job on this cd. The performance is bold and powerful, the orchestra plays and blends wonderfully without sounding over-rehearsed. The recording quality is top notch as are all of the performers. This definitely THE recording of Mahler 2 and should not be missed."