Search - Gustav Mahler, Václav Neumann, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig :: Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D major

Taut, objective and fast

Philippe Vandenbroeck | HEVERLEE, BELGIUM | 03/21/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Neumann's 1967 recording of Mahler 9th presents us with a compelling reading: taut, objective and fast. The total disc plays for just 76 minutes, and I personally don't know of any other reading that is quicker. Even Boulez (on DGG) takes longer to dispatch the work. Despite these rather radical tempo choices the work does not come across as breathless. It certainly is a tense reading that does little to ingratiate itself with the listener. No expressive histrionics here. And although the Gewandhaus Orchestra plays old-fashionedly beautiful, there is no indulging in beauty of sound per se in this bone hard, clenched-teeth kind of vision. Interestingly, in this recording Neumann is able to give a feel for the overall architecture of the symphony that is different from the one we might have become accustomed to. The first movement (24:48) comes in as a juggernaut and lacks the expansiveness of some other readings. There isn't even time to psychologically rebound from the movement's catastrophic big climax; Neumann presses on immediately. On the whole, it feels like a Moderato rather than an Andante. The basic pulse has been set and the second movement (15:21) builds on that momentum. Contrary to most other readings, where the Rondo ("trotzig") builds a savage contrast to the Ländler ("gemächlich"), here it is the third movement (13:10) that provides some relief from the inexorable tension that has been built up. The section in the Rondo that is led by the Wunderhorn-like solo trumpet strikes one as the only, fleeting moment of paradisiacal nostalgia in the midst of a steelgrey whirlpool. The Adagio (22:32) again is fleet-footed but by now the tempo makes utter sense (unlike in the Boulez recording where it is only marginally faster but where the music strikes one as hurried and dull). At this point we can indeed start to appreciate how Neumann and his Leipzig orchestra have built a long line from the faltering rhythms at the very start of the first movement to the hymnic waves in the finale. Thematic and tempo relationships seem to mesh providing us with an intuitive grasp for the structure of the whole edifice. If one is used to the excrutiatingly slow endings, ppppp, which have become standard practice in this work, Neumann's final bars will strike one as blasphemously prosaic. The symphony simply ends and that was Mahler's last completed symphony. Finis operis.



The sonics are very good. The sound is a tad nasal, perhaps, but lovers of vinyl will appreciate this. Otherwise there is plenty of body and depth. I would warmly recommend this recording.

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