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Ozawa shows a surprising affinity for the Mahler First

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 03/04/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ozawa's Mahler has fallen so far out of favor that it's rarely referred to, but I was impressed by his account of Sym. #8, so I thought I'd try this 1987 recording of the First. It's a digital remake of an earlier First from 1977, which can still be found on DG with a little searching of the used market. The Gramophone disparaged the remake compared to the original, but on its own, this is a surprisingly charactrful reading. There are accents, phrases, and moments of pacing that feel original. On the ohter hand, as so often with Ozawa, there are also stretches where he lapses into a lax, refined approach.



Right off one notes that Philips has done a very good engineering job from Symph9ony Hall in Boston and that the BSO is in excellent form. 1987 was fifteen years into the conductor's protracted tenure with the orchestra -- the relationship was still viable, and the playing feels committed throughout. The general contour of the interpretation is polished and objective, in keeping with similar readings under Boulez, Jansons, and Chailly. But I detect more energy and less fussiness than with the latter two.



Ozawa can be generic, as in the well played but rather bland "forest awakening" that opens the symphony. The Scherzo has surprising energy and zest (no touches of rough peasant dancing, however). The parodistic funeral march is played straight, without exaggerated Jewish touches in the klezmer-like middle section. The propulsive finale reminded me that Ozawa began life as quite a galvanic conductor when he wanted to be. Even so, we don't get the headlong abandon that Bernstein brings to this earthquake of a conclusion. His account on DG is a flawless example of combining passion and nuance in Mahler. Yet this Boston reading is no also-ran. I'm tempted to explore Ozawa's Mahler cycle a little more, if with caution."