Search - Gustav Mahler, Recorded Sound, Mariss Jansons :: Mahler: Symphony No. 5 [Hybrid SACD]

Good, but another muffed-up finale!

B. Guerrero | 11/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As to be expected, Mariss Janson's secures outstanding playing from the Concertgebouw Orchestra in his new Mahler 5 recording. The sound strikes me as a tad brighter than I what normally remember coming from this RCO Live series. But none the less, it's still good. And while Jansons is often times quite strict in obeying what's written in the score of any particular work, he has a number of small ideas that work quite well here. Or, to be more precise, a different way of interpreting what instructions there are. HOWEVER, he does a major thingy that I absolutely hate, and is dead wrong, wrong, WRONG about (at least in terms of what MY scores say to do). What does he do? . . In the finale, he does that same awful slow-down, at the same exact spot, that James De Priest put into his LSO M5 for Naxos. While approaching the reprise of the big brass chorale tune from the second movement, Jansons - just like De Priest - slows down many measures BEFORE Mahler asks for any kind of ritardando at all.



First, you hear the ascending fanfare figures in the horns, accompanied by a unison, descending major scale in the trombones. Then the trumpets come in with one of the second subject tunes - played forte - accompanied by a timpani roll for a bar to two. All of this leads up to a forte stroke in the bass drum, which launches fast, chugging, sixteenth note figures in the upper strings. Then comes the big chorale tune. Welllll . . . Jansons slows down where the trumpets come in with that secondary theme (first introduced by clarinets, much earlier in the movement). This saps a lot of the energy out before reaching the reprise of the chorale tune. As he did in Pittsburgh, Jansons greatly stretches out the main chorale theme in the trumpets; almost to absurd length. But the effect gets entirely undermined by having slowed down everything already, and much too soon.



By the way, the bass drum stroke that I mentioned - the one that launches the chugging sixteenth note figures in the upper strings - it gets replaced by a cymbal crash. Where did that come from?



Here's an idea: just do what the score says to do. Funny how the composer usually got it right the first time."

A major success for Jansons -- one of the most gripping Mahl

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am amazed and delighted to report that this splendid recording held me glued to my chair from beginning to end. I didn't expect to be. By now Mariss Jansons has conducted enough Mahler, live and on records, to establish a fairly unexceptional style. It's not as bland and under-dramatized as Riccardo Chailly's, his predecessor in Amsterdam, but it's every bit as gorgeous sounding. Jansons tends to be a literalist, and let's face it, at this point the Mahler Fifth is a slam dunk -- every notable orchestra, and even some amateur ones (e.g., the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel on DG), can deliver an accomplished performance that revs the score up for maximum thrills. Few approach the work with Jansons' subtlety and thoughtfulness, however. His unforced, natural flow reminds me of Bruno Walter, in fact.



The Royal Concertgebouw, heard here in concert, have no rivals for sheer beauty of sound. Even the Vienna Phil. would be sent back to the practice room to outdo the sheen of these violins. The hybrid SACD recording from the orchestra's house label is of ddemonstration quality, even for those of us so backward that we still listen to two-channel stereo. Audiophiles will rejoice.



Yet the most astonishing part is Jansons' resurrection as a Mahlerian -- his insights in the Fifth are deeper, more musical, and just as galvanizing as Leonard Bernstein's. You often feel as if you are discovering this tumultuous score for the first time. For those aficinados who time the Adagietto, his is fairly fast-moving at just over 9 min. Otherwise, all tempos are within the usual range.



Even if you own half a dozen other Mahler Fifths, this one is so resplendent that it demands a listen.



P.S. 2010 - Jansons has proved to be an extremely variable Mahler conductor, but I recently heard a very impressive broadcast of the rCO in the Mahler Second. Let's hope it gets turned into a CD."