Arnold Schoenberg Michael Gielen SWR Sinfonieorchester - Mahler Symphony No 2 in C minor The Resurrection Gielen SWR Sinfonieorchester (7 tracks) +Album Reviews

Unusual fillers with a warhorse

Bruce Hodges | New York, NY | 07/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To tell the truth, I have five or six recordings of this Mahler and hardly needed another, but Gielen's came out shortly around the time I heard one of its fillers, performed live. Kurtag's Stele is an amazing work, a 15-minute funeral ode, and I've heard few pieces like it. Its central section is a series of dense, softly pulsating chords that seem composed from another world. (Sometime I'd like to see the score.)

The Mahler is terrific -- one of the best versions around, and there are lots of them. Gielen seems to have spot-on instincts for choosing just the right tempi, bringing out all the inherent drama. The SWR musicians sound terrific, considering that this is an ensemble not everyone might view as a first choice. Never mind. If you've never heard of them (and actually I hadn't), don't let that sway you -- they play magnificently.

The Schoenberg is also valuable, and equally well-performed, even though I confess I'm not the biggest fan of the work's mix of music and narration. (When I'm in the mood for music, speech competes with the other side of the brain, and for the same reason, Copland's Lincoln Portrait doesn't really work for me, either.) But again, the performance is excellent and this particular Schoenberg isn't done that often.

Haenssler's sound is wonderful -- clear and with plenty of space (as it must be) to capture the enormous climaxes that are everywhere in these pieces. If you are at all intrigued by the accompaniments to the Mahler, this is an outstanding program."

Wow! Lots of character!

Gregory M. Zinkl | Chicago, IL | 01/19/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My shelves are, for me, overflowing with Mahler 2nds. Slatkin, Scherchen, Litton, Walter are all there, and now Gielen joins them.It's hard to choose between Scherchen, who is sometimes downright weird in his tempo shifts, or Gielen. They have very characterful interpretations, with tempo changes that I've not heard before. They both bring out details--Scherchen is especially good at one really terrific moment in I, where the strings use the wood of their bows (I kind of a percussion sound) to add to the excitement; Slatkin's was pretty good too, but Scherchen is downright gripping. Slatkin's reading is a very good one, although pretty straightforward; as is Litton, although the engineering on Slatkin is better to my ears, but the differences are slight. Scherchen's engineering is stereo, but with some terrible editing (MCA).Anyway, back to Gielen. The orchestra plays fabulously, which they always seem to do for Gielen. The strings and woodwinds are especially good. The engineering is very fine, and the overall punch of the performance is pretty heady.A fine characterful performance with a huge emotional thrust and great beauty. I recommend it!!!!"

Mahler, Kurtag and Schoenberg Under One Roof

M. Seeley | Charlotte, NC | 02/20/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this recording for the Kurtag piece. I really didn't need another Mahler 2nd to my collection. Stele is a powerful work and it is well executed in this recording. But so is the Mahler! I'm so glad I obtained Gielen's performance of the Resurrection symphony. This recording is now the first one I pull off the shelf when I want to listen to it. This Mahler is played straight-up and is not like the apocalyptic version of Lenny. Gielen wastes no time getting started. And the SWF Symphony plays with great strength. It is a muscular account, but it has a lot of finese, too!

This is a great recording. You get a powerful performance of the Mahler 2nd coupled with some other rare and thought-provoking works."

Nicely done, but not the ultimate "Resurrection"

Steven Tiger | 06/26/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Second Symphony was my introduction to Mahler, almost half a century ago, and I have never forgotten the electrifying experience of hearing this music for the first time. Since then, I have heard many performances, and I have yet to hear what I would call an ideal performance. Gielen's performance and the recorded sound are exceptionally clean. My criticisms: there are moments when the orchestra bass parts are quiet yet vital, but in some of these places, the bass parts are hardly even present. Some of huge outbursts of sound are properly apocalyptic (especially the opening of the fifth movement, where Gielen's performance is about as good as it gets). But there is at least one place where the sound is oddly pedestrian, and that is near the end, when the full orchestra, organ, and chorus intone the Resurrection choral. The notes are all there and the performance is sleek and gorgeous--but to me, the music at this radiant moment should sound as if the sky was splitting open. These criticisms aside, Gielen has led a generally fine performance, easily as good as most others I have heard. But I'll continue to search for the ultimate Resurrection."

A calm Judgment Day for Mahler, but very welcome fillers

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/28/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Why are reviewers at Amazon so content with automatically patting a recording on the head? Shouldn't we get some objective facts about the performance? In this case, Gielen joins Pierre Boulez, another modernist-objectivist conductor, in taking the Mahler Second so coolly, with so little temperament and dramatic contrast, that the whole character of the work is changed. What used to be cataclysms are now rude interruptions in the smooth flow of events.

I find this a betrayal of Mahler's intentions (after all, the gigantic first movement reworks a tone poem he entitled "Death Celebration"). If you want a "Resurrection" Sym. without apocalyptic fervor, or even sharp edges, Gielen is skillful -- not that Boulez isn't -- and he's not cold or aloof. The Minuet is precise, brisk, and flavorless, the Scherzo having the same shape but managing to sound jaunty and even merry. In the "Urlicht" movement Gielen goes a bit slack, but alto Cornelia Kallisch sings with assurance (in eloquent German), her tone closer to the plummy Jessye Norman than the leaner, more fervent Janet Baker.

Like Boulez, Gielen reacts calmly to the prospect of Judgment Day. The last trumpet(s) takes it easy on waking the dead. (In German, the Book of Revelation prophesies a last trombone (Posaune), so a full brass section, not just trumpets, is suitable.) Things then march along briskly, more like St. Patrick's Day down Fifth Ave. than souls to judgment. More than Boulez, Gielen glibly sails through the big climaxes, but that's his habit in Mahler.

Throughout, the chorus (a very good one, partially from Berlin) and orchestra are recorded with exemplary fullness and detail, even though the SWR SO isn't that full to begin with. One can't chide them for sounding provincial; it's just that Mahler has been glorified by more stellar ensembles from Berlin to Los Angeles. Neither vocal soloist captures hushed expectation or soulfulness in the last movement, but Gielen doesn't want them to, presumably. Having banished terror, we might as well banish reverence.

Since I'm not in sympathy with Gielen's approach, you can read my four stars as approval of the two imaginative fillers, particularly the mournful, elegaic 'Stele' from Kurtag, one of his few works for large orchestra and a major addition to his discography -- it's both intense and moving. The Schoenberg is a weird duck, though, a mystical monodrama (well narrated in English by James Johnson) against a lurid tonal orcchestral track that manages to sound, of all things, kitschy. There's even a chorus intoning, "Repent, repent." Bizarre."

Search - Arnold Schoenberg, Michael Gielen, SWR Sinfonieorchester :: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, The Resurrection / Gielen, SWR Sinfonieorchester

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