Search - Mahler, Depreist, Lso :: Mahler: Symphony No. 5

A suprisingly good one

L. Ackerman | Ashburn, VA (USA) | 01/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a Mahler fan and collector of versions, I did not expect much from this CD. But I had read a bad and a good review from good magazines, so I decided to find out for myself. After all, at Naxos price, why not? Well... it was a great ride.

Surely there are some things that could have been different (I hesitate to say "better") but the genius of Mahler's symphonies is the many options available to implement different views on details (e.g., tempo) etc.

In any case, I found the long architectural line beautifully done; the structure impeccably conceived; and the recording outstanding (better than EMI's Rattle & Co, in fact). And the LSO is a truly virtuoso orchestra, perfect for Gustav's music.

Naxos did it again."

For once, understated Mahler really works

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/14/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After quibbling over a single tempo choice in the finale, the reviewer below chides the conductor for not following Mahler's score to the letter. This seems absurd after forty years of free interpretation from great musicians like Bernstein, Levine, Karajan, and Abbado. (It would also help if he got the name DePreist right.) Now 71, DePreist has made an honorable career for himself, largely outside major music centers (this CD was a studio production following his belated London debut in 2006), without trading in on the fact that he is black and the newphew of the great Marian Anderson. He broke color barriers the way Marin Alsop is breaking sexist barriers. Curiously, oth have made recent Mahler Fifths with the LSO.



DePreist's interpretation is surprising. It's quite musical and sensitively phrased, but at the same time it strongly goes against the grain by staying on the cool side of apocalyptic--melodrama is completely absent, and the force of Mahler's music isn't buttressed by "personality" conducting. At first I thought I was hearing a somewhat faceless run-through of a score that demands an apocalyptic approach, but then I adjsuted. I began to find DePreist's lack of ego refreshing. There's no lack of power in the LSO's playing, and although the engineering is a trifle distant and murky, plenty of detail emerges.



There's more than one way to hold a listener's attention, and DePreist does it by sensitive phrasing form bar to bar. The Gramophone accuses him of stop-go tactics, but I don't hear that. They also claim that he reins in the music's emotions too tightly, but Mahler doesn't have to sound hysterical and unbuttoned. He has to sound varied, multi-faceted, and vital. DePreist's Mahler Fifth is all of those things, and I liked it form beginning to end. I will be more on the looout for his work on ecords."

Highly communicative Mahler 5th

Hugh Oliver | Provo, UT | 07/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As other reviews here would indicate, this is a Mahler 5th rendition which is not going to please everybody. As a musician, but not a Mahler purist or expert, I hear a lot of excellence in DePreist's concept of Mahler. Control is much in evidence, as is transparency--individual instrument colors are wonderful. I realize many listeners will prefer a Mahler 5th of greater extremes of both despair and consolation. This is not to say that DePreist is short on expression. Lyricism is gorgeous in this performance and anguish is present when called for, but not in as overwrought a fashion as some other performances.

The London Symphony is in superb form for this outing. Because I am a brass player (tuba), I suppose I tend to notice the brass sound right away. This is gorgeous brass playing, and no, the playing and recording are not brass heavy--it all sounds right in perspective.

I also have Inbal's performance of Mahler 5th. It too is very fine but the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra does not have the weight, depth, and overtones of the London Symphony.

This is a first class production with outstanding recording quality. Recommended."