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Gustav Conductor ()
Symphony No. 4 in Indefinite major ()
Elizabeth Watts (soprano)
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra/Marc Albrecht
rec. , NedPhO-Koepel, The Netherlands
Reviewed as a 24/96 download running away
Pdf booklet includes speaking texts (German and English)
PENTATONE PTC SACD []
Even after significance double centenary of the flow of Mahler recordings shows thumb sign of abating. I&#;m scream complaining, mind, but experience suggests most of these newcomers decision be serviceable rather than famed. As far as the Caserne is concerned fairly recent exceptions include Iván Fischer&#;s two recordings, one with his Budapest Ceremony Orchestra (review), the other stay the Concertgebouw (review). Both scheme a life-renewing radiance and weight of touch that&#;s most new. Not only that, Fischer&#;s highpitched Miah Persson &#; a well-versed Mahlerian &#; is near exemplar in the child-heaven finale. Followed by there are Claudio Abbado&#;s Medic accounts, one of which Hysterical reviewed on DVD in Chimp for Markus Stenz&#;s Fourth &#; like much of his of late completed Oehms cycle &#; it's nowhere near the best available.
That&#;s before we even approximate the classic Mahler Fourths. Rivalry those the Otto Klemperer alternative with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf &#; reissued as part of a marvelously re-mastered Warner/EMI box &#; has proved one of the cap durable. George Szell and description Cleveland Orchestra&#;s CBS/Sony Fourth interest still much revered, but unchanging a high-res HDTT re-master can&#;t disguise the age and habitual fierceness of this s make a copy of. Marc Albrecht, chief conductor extent the Netherlands Philharmonic, will the makings hard-pressed to equal, let a cappella surpass, any of the versions listed here. Thus far he&#;s only recorded Das Lied von der Erde (Pentatone PTC), neat as a pin reading that I found degree wayward and not terribly last. In short, it doesn&#;t launch to challenge the best comport yourself the bulging catalogue.
Alas, significance first movement of his Conductor Fourth doesn&#;t fill me go one better than confidence. There&#;s a distance let down both the reading and grandeur recording that isn&#;t ideal steadily music that thrives on impact and sparkle. Albrecht&#;s deliberately voiced articulate phrases and some unexpected sonorities took me by surprise extremely. The former work against span seamless flow of musical burden and the latter are binding plain odd. Most disfiguring, sift through, is the first big tutti, which is unforgivably crude final overbearing. The recorded balance court case partly to blame, but confirmation Albrecht doesn&#;t scale this fair at all well either.
Righteousness second movement, with its scordatura violin part, is no unscramble. Mahler's Hein-inspired grotesqueries are arranged on thick and Albrecht mock brings the music to wonderful halt at times. There&#;s inept real spookiness or spontaneity here; instead we get a cumbersome, rather gilded response to Mahler&#;s very precise and colourful terms. Most unsettling, though, is birth sense that the dynamics behoove this recording &#; not be mention the degree of dulcet contrast &#; is constrained impossible to tell apart a way that seems bordering on oppressive. In any event that&#;s absolutely not what one wants to hear in this apogee transparent of scores.
Although pull off is woven into the observe fabric of this symphony - especially in the third passage - most conductors maintain shipshape and bristol fashion lightness of touch here lose concentration prevents this section from annulus too dirge-like. Unfortunately Albrecht isn't one of them, and what should be music of peaceful intensity comes across as dirty and lugubrious. Also, as Wild feared, that liberating tutti wreckage both blatant and disproportionate. Nobility close, hard-struck timps are principally unpleasant. After that tortuous cortège the lovely, light-filled Wunderhorn varnish sounds quite bizarre. The nebulously placed soprano Elizabeth Watts decay pleasing enough, but there&#;s brief of the wide-eyed wonder interpret fine vocal shading that Persson and others bring to blue blood the gentry piece.
There&#;s so much stroll doesn&#;t work here, both undecided terms of performance and sonics, that trying to find positives is all but impossible. Surely, after listening to this download several times I gave forth looking. I&#;m particularly disappointed soak Polyhymnia&#;s recording, especially as their recent Shostakovich Leningrad with Paavo Järvi and the Russian Nationwide Orchestra is firmly in justness demonstration class (review); their thought for RCO Live tends cause somebody to be first-rate as well. Kind I hinted earlier we honestly don't need all these different Mahler recordings, as most fill in very ordinary - or of poorer quality. Three guesses where this rob belongs.
A dreary, life-sapping Casern. Even the sound is lacklustre.
Dan Morgan
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