Search - Schmidt, Schoenberg, Mehta :: Symphony 4 / Chamber Symphony 1

Definitive Schmidt from a brazen, young Zubin Mehta and oh y

dv_forever | Michigan, USA | 04/16/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having one of the greatest orchestras in the world at your command must be one hell of a privilege. Using this magnificent instrument to perform and record an out of the way composer's greatest symphony was a wise and enterprising decision. This recording hasn't been touched since it came out decades ago. Competing versions from Neeme Jarvi and Franz Welser-Most sound anemic and dull side by side. The first recording I heard of this symphony was the Welser-Most one and I wrote this work off immediately. But I knew Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic would find the depth and life missing from the EMI recording. Out of the Schmidt symphonic canon, this piece is the one to have. The music is late romantic but instead of a decadent fin-de-siecle sound mass, we hear Brucknerian breadth and dignity. The brass ring out forcefully in every climax and the strings are of course in the highest class.



This CD can be tough to acquire but you can own this record on a Decca Double with Mehta's Mahler Resurrection if you so choose. The coupling here though is Schoenberg's first Chamber Symphony, a work I loathe. I am not a hater of Schoenberg or modernism in general, ( check my reviews, I love the moderns ), but this 20 minute parade of awkward noises and brittle counterpoint is most unpleasant. Schoenberg was still finding his voice at this stage in the game and the piece sounds like a cliche after more than a century on. Imagine a middle-aged, thrice divorced Jewish grandmother droning on about her life disappointments and constantly critiquing her unwilling audience. That is how this music sounds to my ears. It might be very different to you. This piece seems designed for cynics and masochists, so if that's you, dig in. The Schmidt on the other hand is definitive, a must have if one wants music in the Brucknerian mold."