Search - Marjana Lipovsek, WDR Sinfonie-Orchester Koln :: Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.3 / York Holler: Der ewige Tag

At its best, a really wonderful reading

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mahler had a stormy heart and at the same time the subtlest musical intelligence. No one can do justice to the Third Sym. who doesn't understand both. (Szell and Boulez are one-sided in their analytic approach, Solti is one-sided in his turbulence.) I didn't expect Semyon Bychkov to have the musical depth to encompass this enormously difficult work, but he turns out to be a natural. The WDR orchestra based in Cologne isn't world class -- Mahler always benefits from virtuosity -- but they capture the music's many changing moods, laking only the last degree of power and intensity. Avie's recording is vivid, close up, and visceral.



I especially like the rustic, piping quality of the woodwinds and the roughness in the brass playing. When the first movement struggles to reach an apotheosis, you feel that the struggle is genuine -- this is very sinewy Mahler, light years removed from the placid blandness of Mehta, and Leinsdorf. Haitink has always been successful with the Third, but you feel when all is said and done that nothing really vital was at stake. Bychkov makes you feel that the world's fate hangs in the balance. Abbado had the measure of this work and two great orchestras to put it across, but he lacks Bychkov's quirkiness and charm.



A conductor's sympathy for Mahler can be told in quiet movements like the second, a bucolic Andante in three-quarter time, which serves as prelude to the thrid movement's magical forest and haunting Wunderhorn calls. Bychkov captures the mood shifts quite sensitively without losing the music's rapturous impulse -- he excels Rattle here, in fact everyone but Bernstein in his pioneering NY Phil. recording. The "O Mensch" movement is taken very slowly and gravely, which I think is just right; I only wish that Marjana Lipvosek could summon more world-weariness and pathos. The oboe glissandos sound very convincing rather than odd. The chorus is adept in the fifth movement without being quite innocent or magical enough. Lipsovek remains somber, which isn't right for the text, but Bychkov seconds her mood in the orchestral part.



The Mahler Third ends, like the Ninth, in an Adagio finale that must convey through cumulative intensity what is normally conveyed by whirling excitement. I am always happy whenever a conductor leans in with maximum force and unhappy when he floats dreamily on the surface. Bychkov isn't intense, yet he benefits from taking a quick enough tempo that the melodic line unfolds with naturalness and songful charm. If oly he had ended on a shattering apotheosis the way the greatest performances do.



The generous fill-up is Holler's "Der Ewige Tag" (The Eternal Day) for chorus, orchestra, and electronics. Many traditionalists will be frightened off, but the work is quite listenable and by now its post-Darmstadt idio seems less rigorous and daunting. The conneciton with Mahler is that the composer openly quotes the Seventh Sym. as a prelude to the finale choral section.



I had been deeply impressed by Bychkov when he first appeared on the scene, only to be let down by his later career. He seems to be back in force with this kind of world-class Mahler conducting. In the end, this is the best Mahler Third I've come across in a long while and should appeal to anyone who doesn't mind a lower key approach than Solti's or Bernstein's."

Essential M3

Silly String | 06/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Leonard Bernstein's pioneering account of Mahler's 3rd with the New York Phil in the 1960's--with its spontaneity, excitment, and passion--set the standard for many recordings that followed. Unfortunately, many of those did little more than imitate the original, and imitations are rarely a substitute. Lenny himself provided a worthy and inspired update with his Deutche Gramophone release in the 90's, ratcheting up the emotion to yet another level. This paid great dividends in the first movement particularly--this might be the greatest recording ever of this movement, but at other times he wallows a little too much and the tension slips (2nd movement and 6th movement, especially).



This new recording by Semyon Bychkov is the only version I've heard other than Bernstein's that really has something new to say. It is full of new interpretive insights, a few here, a few there. And they pretty much all work in their new and original way. The fresh approach pays great dividends. We finally return to having excitement, visceral spontaneity, and truly profound passion.



This is the recording to get to supplement your Bernstein recording. Alternate, different yet very nearly as good, interpretively. When you also factor in the fantastic sound quality and the very high caliber of playing from the WDR Sim Koln, this might be THE recording to own.



I think Lenny's DG account is still greatest for movements 1, 4, 5, and probably 3. But Bychkov's reading never flags from beginning to end and he turns in superior readings of the 2nd and 6th movements.



Really you've got to have both....



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