Search - Wolfgang Schone, Gustav Mahler, Václav Neumann :: Gustav Mahler: Symphonies [Box Set]

Six excellent recordings and three disappointments

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 12/07/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Vaclav Neumann (1920-95) was the first conductor behind the Iron Curtain to record all the Mahler symphonies. He did so with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, where he was kaepllmesiter from 1964-68, and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra of these recordings, where he gained greatest fame as chief conductor from 1968-90.



Perhaps owing to the enforced mantra of Socialist reality in East Germany and Czechoslovakia during his time, beauty tends to replace neuroses in his recordings. Indeed, Neumann's Mahler is about as far removed temperamentally as possible from the Mahler-as-neurotic standard of Bernstein, Solti, Tilson Thomas and others in the West.



Instead, Neumann focuses on beauty of sound and orchestral execution. Even in the tempestuous closing movement of the "Tragic" Symphony No. 6, where Mahler's hero ascends only to consistently be knocked down by timpani strokes, there is lovelineess in Neumann's interpretation and in the playing of the Czech orchestra.



There is prodigious beauty herre in the Symphonies Nos. 1-4, 8 and the 22-minute fragment of Symphony 10. The best work in the box, in my opinion, comes in these scores. The "Titan" symphony is magnificently played and recorded and is linked to the Adagio of Mahler's incomplete Symphony 10. Neumann's "Resurrection" symphony -- a tidy and exciting 75-minute performance -- has been famous for years. Greatest surprise to me was the wonderful performance of the Symphony No. 4, which intermingles charm and drama with a child's view of heaven. This performance may be the best one in the set and one of the few by this conductor and orchestra I had never previously read about.



Similar plaudits are due Neumann's conception of the two longest and most immalleable of Mahler creations, the Symphonies Nos. 3 and 8. Under Neumann, these symphonies are unified, beautiful and logical. The playing, singing, pacing and overall interpretation of both lengthy symphonies gives them a lighter than air feeling when compared to more volatile (and more famous) renditions I've encountered from Solti, Abbado, Bernstein and Rattle. Neumann's "Symphony of the Thousand" won the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque award for choral music in 1983 and outstanding by any measure; it compares well to any version extant. See my review of his pairing of these two for more commentary Symphony 3 in D.



While some critics sing the praises of the Neumann-Czech Philharmonic renditions of the Symphonies 5-7, I found none of them to be of the first rank. The 9th isn't bad, just average. The others have lengthy stretches of boring, average or wayward interpretaion and playing, espcially Symphony No. 7. Neumann also recorded Mahler in Leipzig before returning to Prague in 1968 after Karel Ancerl bolted the Czech Philharmonic when Soviet tanks and troops crushed the "Prague spring" uprising. In my opinion, Neumann's recordings of Mahler: Symphony No. 5 and Symphony 7 are preferable over the ones in this box.



Overall, the Czech Philharmomic recordings, made in Prague's Rudolfinum across the digital divide from 1976-83, are unrelentingly beautiful and rich in orchestral detail with recordings that match them every step of the way. The playing refelcts the old world practices of one of the world's most unique ensembles with occasional Slavic bray in horns and woodwinds intact to superb effect.



These qualities, plus the six superb interpretations, make this set desirable for anyone that wants to expand their Mahler collection or buy a first set where the conductor has a unified approach. Other benefits:

-- The recordings come in cardboard slipcases and a slimline box that takes up about as much space as three full size CDs.

-- While the notes are slight the wonderful and truthful recordings are authenticated with places, date and recording engineers.

-- Amazon venders sell this set very inexpensively."

Great complete Mahler syms overall from a unique sounding or

Alvin Kho | Boston, MA United States | 05/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In a parallel ideal universe, the Karels (Ancerl or Sejna) would have led the great Czech Philharmonic in these Mahler symphonies. Mind you, Vaclav Neumann is no slouch in these performances. Love that distinctive eastern European sound palette (just listen to the winds throughout!) that persisted into the early 1980's when some of these were recorded. I wonder if Mahler had exactly this sound palette in his mind's ears when he wrote these - he was born in Bohemia after all. Audio quality is good and bright, reverberant in all the right places. Some highlights:



#2 features the best pair of soloists (Benackova & Randova) of any #2 I've heard.

#4 is magical, esp. in the slow movt.3 (the winds!) and Hajossyova has that crystalline childlike voice to bring the whole thing to a marvellous close. Tip: Sejna's mono 1950 #4 with Maria Tauberova (used to be on Supraphon LP, aeons OOP) is very very special indeed. Supraphon if you're reading this, please please reissue this gem!

#7 is very wonderfully played here. #7 always makes my mind wander - here's this is the only #7 recording that makes me sit up, really listen and "get it", I think, (... perhaps due to the distinctive orchestral timbre?)

#8 is simply awesome, amongst the best #8 on record.



The even-numbered symphonies alone would be worth the price of this whole set. One minor quibble is #9, my favourite, which sounds somehow disengaged to me. Perhaps in my mind/ears, I was subconsciously comparing against Ancerl's 1966 #9, same orchestra/place, that's absolutely incandescent and unique ... grab that one if you see it, Ancerl Gold Edition 33."

The best complete set of the Symphonies

Eric Zuesse | USA | 10/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vaclav Neumann was far and away the greatest Mahler conductor. His style emphasized the music's monumentality rather than sentimentality. He took his Mahler passionate but dry, and his versions of the 9th and 7th are especially chilling--just the thing to hear at 2 AM when the world about you is quiet. Perhaps his avoidance of cheap theatrics caused him to lack the "star" status of Leonard Bernstein and other famous Mahler conductors, but Neumann dwarfed them all and set the standard for Mahler performances which can be listened to a thousand times and still reveal new and deeper levels in the music.



By contrast to another commentator, I find especially rewarding Neumann's Mahler 7th and 9th, and least rewarding his Mahler 3rd. Indeed, I find the 7th and 9th the best performances in the entire set, both being made all the more effective by virtue of their matter-of-fact approach to music which in the hands of other conductors comes across more as melodrama than as drama. These are chilling performances, where the conductor is taken over by the spirit of the composer and delivers that spirit, unvarnished, to the listener. However, Neumann was so urbane, so sophisticated, that he never managed to get fully into the spirit of Mahler's Nature Symphony, #3, only the surface of which he projects in either of his two recordings of the work. For a performance which gets fully into the spirit of the piece, and where the listener travels with Mahler on his epic spiritual journey through Austria's forests and fields and into his deepest communions with nature, nothing comes close to the performance which F. Charles Adler conducted, with the Vienna Symphony (Vienna Philharmonia), a more leisurely performance than Neumann's, and one which makes a good case that the Third is quite possibly Mahler's greatest Symphony (although I think that probably the completed Tenth was, in any of the Deryck Cooke realizations).



So, I would recommend this set, supplemented by the F. Charles Adler recording of the 3rd, and also by the completed 10th Symphony conducted by either Mark Wigglesworth or Kurt Sanderling."