Search - Gustav Mahler, Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra :: Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand)

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Reviewed on 4/25/2010...

Just a note about content: Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand)
Gustav Mahler (Composer), Seiji Ozawa (Conductor), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Tanglewood Festival Chorus (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Ozawa's best Mahler and the best Mahler 8th

J. F. Laurson | Washington, DC United States | 07/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"[Mahler, Symphony 8. Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa / Faye Robinson (soprano 1 and Magna Peccatrix), Judith Blegen (soprano II & Una poenitentium), Deborah Sasson (soprano III & Mater Gloriosa), Florence Quivar (alto I & Mulier Samaritana), Lorna Myers (alto II and Maria Aegyptiaca), Kenneth Riegel (tenor I and Doctor Marianus), Benjamin Luxon (baritone & Pater Ecstaticus), Gwynne Howell (bass & Pater Profondus) / Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Boys Choir / Joseph Silverstein (solo violin), James Christie (organ)]

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Ozawa's tenure with Boston was not very happy, towards the end of its stretch... and that muddles our memory of him as a conductor. But at his best, he had the ability to be truly spell-binding and when the BSO/Ozawa affair was still young, they could create magic. This recording from 1980 is such an occasion.



This is far and away the best recording of Mahler's 8th owing to an intensity that is not matched by even the best of contenders (Abbado (DG), Bernstein (DG), Sinopoli (DG) with reservations: Kubelik (Audite), Nagano (HMU)). This is the Solti anti-dote. For all those who don't understand why the famous Solti Decca recording (great sound, good singers) is so hyped by the (English) press, here is what they need. Unlike Solti, who does not seem to understand the drug-hazed atmosphere of Goethe's _Faust II_ or, indeed, the abstruse mysticism of the Mahler 8th and consequently energetically drives through it with elan, speed and determination (all good qualities in most other works, but not here), Ozawa gives this - frankly: weird - work all the time it needs to develop. (Not excessively so, either - 80 minutes is enough for him and not all that much, on paper, to spend on this work.) He does not let it sag, but rolls out the wafty, nebulous, foggy, misty parts so tenderly, so other-worldly (and with no audible gear changes whenever he nudges the work forward again), that in a very eerie, beautiful way, times seems to stand still.



After a mighty, powerful, broad _Veni, Creatur, Spiritus_ (23:07), a marvel itself, he lunges into _Faust II-_. Although `lunge' is probably not the proper word: He carves it out of the score and supported by a cast of singers that, seemingly infected by the momentous occasion, outdo themselves, delivers the most satisfying reading of this second movement. Better yet, he crowns it with an indescribably perfect _Chorus Mysticus_. For me, a performance of the 8th stands and falls with "Alles Vergängliche", and Ozawa's 6:02 are like a one-way ticket to heaven. Whatever negative things have been said about Ozawa's Boston Mahler (his Saito Kinen 2nd is actually *excellent*; the 9th with that band very good, too), this performance alone should have redeemed him. In Japan it was inducted into the "Philips Super Best 100" [sic!] collection, in the West it still awaits re-issue. I cannot quite understand why... but then, as a German, I don't understand the obsession with the inappropriate Anglo-drive through this work a la Solti or Rattle."

Exquisite

Peter Brawley | 11/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ozawa's Mahler 8 with the Boston SO, Tanglewood festival Chorus and Boston Boys Choir is pretty much everything that Solti's Mahler 8 is not--feminine where Solti is fierce, beautifully paced where Solti is hurried, mystical where Solti is driven, spiritual where Solti is merely dramatic. For me, Ozawa has found the soul of this symphony. Faye Robinson and Judith Blegen never sound strained, even when the score's demands are severe. The choruses are splendid. True, because the recording balances favour overall perspective, the sound is not as detailed as some other recordings of the 8th, but that's an unavoidable price for conveying the whole created by nearly a thousand performers ahead of individual or sectional brilliancies.



Once I had this recording, other recordings of the 8th have just gathered dust.





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