Search - Detlef Roth, Gustav Mahler, Kent Nagano :: Mahler: Symphony No. 8

And Yet Another Mahler 8th...

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 07/03/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Mahler's epic Symphony No. 8 is becoming as frequently recorded as the 2nd and 4th and 1st. It seems every conductor wants to effect the definitive recording of this massive work that calls for large orchestra, mixed choirs, children's choir, and soloists. The curious finding in listening to each of the many recordings now available is the degree of different tempi, the amount of time for the various performances, the importance of the quality of the choral and solo parts, and the impact of the overall reading.



Kent Nagano is an opera conductor, soon to depart as principal conductor of the Los Angeles Opera, as well as a symphonic conductor and these two roles should serve him well in conducting the many forces involved in the Mahler 8th. The orchestra is grand - the Deutscher-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin -and his choices in dynamics utilize the aid of creating this CD in the recording studio as opposed to the usual 'live performance' amalgam on other recordings. And that may be the problem with this performance on CD that just somehow doesn't catch fire.



The soloists are competent if generally unremarkable and the choral singing is adequate yet never thrilling. Nagano loves to allow the organ parts of this symphony to shake the universe and that is a welcome change. The recording is sound and the Nagano's concept is in keeping with his reputation for clarity, if not sweep. For this listener Part Two suffers from slow tempi, slow to the point of losing the anticipated climax. It is as though Nagano see this symphony as two individual works rather than finding the seeds in Part One that flower in Part Two.



With so many other available recordings of the "Symphony of a Thousand" this version serves as a remarkably well-recorded achievement. Others just have more soul. Grady Harp, July 05"

Caveat lector: this is an amateur review.

Pater Ecstaticus | Norway | 09/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First of all the playing of the orchestra: I think it is polished and very sweet, and very refined also, relishing in all the gorgeous tone-colours, but I like that in Mahler's Eighth Symphony, so it is just great. This may for a part be the result of the very clear, very well defined but never harsh (rather the opposite!) recording here - the best recording ever of this symphony up to now, for as far as I know and for as far as I am concerned. This must be the most sensually (even sensuously) beautiful Mahler 8 I ever heard. But the conductor finds a way to never make the music sound syrupy or sentimental; but indeed full of (love) sentiment - and loads of it! (Remember that his wife Alma was the dedicatee of this symphony - the sentiments expressed in the music must surely also be a reflection of Gustav Mahler's love for this 'musa inspiratrice', Alma.)

The orchestral playing on this (studio) recording is in my view he result of a real overarching vision: not to read to much into the music beforehand - no 'hineininterpretieren', no 'pushing the issue' too much - to let the music unfold itself, like a celestial phenomenon that we see evolving before us. All instrument groups - together with (beautiful!) instrument solos clearly defined (just revel in that luxuriously beautiful sound of the organ here) - are perfectly balanced so as to make an impression of what I would like to describe as 'intimacy' (how very unlike Sir Georg Solti's hectic, somewhat episodic vision; or how very different from Sir Simon Rattle's very lean and nimble Mahler 8). This is a very personal and (yes!) involved Mahler 8 which not everybody might like. You may find it too detached-sounding (as in 'uninvolved') or slow or undercharacterized, or whatever. For example, the conductor often proceeds so 'careful' and 'civilised' (if I may characterize it as such) and downright slow at times as to make some people believe that this conductor has no feeling for what Mahler is trying to tell us - no feeling with the 'deeper' meanings of a musical passage. For example: especially the tempo when Mater gloriosa soars into view ('Adagissimo' or 'very slowly') has maybe never been played at such a 'very slow' pace. It may not be to your liking (just go and listen to Simon Rattle for a completely different and especially quicker kind of approach to Mahler 8, which, incidentally, I would like to characterise as uninvolved-sounding!), but I am really endeared to Nagano's approach. He gives me the time to really 'sink' into the music when listening. Yes, I think that may be it: Nagano (intentially or not) makes you listen and think it all through at the same time. He lets the music speak in a grand but refined and distinguished manner. An intellectual and philosophical (in the good senses of the words) approach...?

Then the choirs and soloists. The boy choir sounds just fine: sweet, aptly childlike (or beter: cherubic/seraphic) and round of tone but with clear diction. The choirs too are the best one could hope for: distinguished singing, massive-sounding (a living and freely breathing phenomenon within this Mahler-world, this Mahler-universe) but clearly audible pronunciation. As for the soloists, I think they are all agreable enough to listen to. No A+ voices, all, though. They all finely fit in with the 'personal' and 'intimate' feel that this recording overall has. All I can say is whether I like voice or not. Purely a sense of emotional impact with me, sorry. (Speaking about emotional impact: just listen to the Doctor Marianus sung by Giuseppe Zampieri in Mitropoulos' Mahler 8!) But I especially like the vulnarability of Lynne Dawsons Una Poenitentium. I also very much like Gambills very lyrical but clear and firm Doctor Marianus, although his sometimes pinched(?) sounding timbre may not be to everyone's liking.

To round off then, a beauteous, polished, sweet, civilised, relaxed - but never ever dull! (compare with Haitink) - Mahler 8 with a wide breast the result of a conductor who really takes his time to let all of the gorgeous textures and colours unfold to the full - which I think is a blessing in Mahler 8. This music can easily be overdone but here it receives a respectful treatment by a thoughtful and refined conductor. One can really hear that Nagano is both an opera and symphony conductor in his treating of the symphony as a dramatic whole, a story that must unfold on itself. I would even like to compare it to Claudio Abbado's really wonderful (all star cast) and (just as finely dramatic) Mahler 8: the same finely honed 'dramatic' or even 'operatic'(?) approach.

And just a final remark: A+ for the insightful and beautifully illustrated booklet and for the beautifully finished packaging in all. Everything about this Mahler 8 just fits together wonderfully."