Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (Dwell) (BR Klassik)
★★★★★
The seventh was the least understood of Mahler’s symphonies and the final to get recorded. Bruno Walter, Mahler’s closest apostle, by no means carried out it. Otto Klemperer, subsequent in line, distended it to twenty minutes over its common size. At 75 minutes, it may well tax an viewers’s endurance.
The symphony has 5 actions, two of them designated ‘Night time Music’, although not within the Mozart sense. The rating requires a tenor horn, cowbells, guitar and mandolin. Arnold Schoenberg grasped these Klimt-like colors because the foundational palette of modernism and used the final two in his turning-point Serenade, opus 24. Hermann Scherchen, who made the primary recording of Mahler’s seventh in 1953, was so dissatisfied with the end result that he launched 4 follow-ups.
Not one of the main Mahlerians get it fairly proper. Leonard Bernstein’s recordings are episodic, Rafael Kubelik is just too pastoral, Bernard Haitink impartial. The wildness of Klaus Tennstedt is at all times fantastic, if barely incoherent. Abbado and Chailly stick with the center of the street. Simon Rattle’s discs with Birmingham, the LSO and the Berlin Philharmonic really feel a bit heavy at instances once they should be dancing.
His newest account with Bavarian Radio sweeps away all such reservations. Munich has lengthy been a haven for Czech musicians who push tempi to the precipice. Their conductor shares a propensity for taking dangers at sharp corners.
The result’s a live performance that canters by way of Mahler nation with scenic relish and a certain quantity of relish. The primary Nachtmusik now not feels like a car-oil business and the second is framed by a violin solo that’s directly engaging and admonitory: this panorama won’t final endlessly.
The finale simply units out to have enjoyable, no deeper motive.
The structure of the symphony feels, for as soon as, precisely proper and the standard of the taking part in is beautiful. You’ll not discover a extra satisfying Mahler Seventh wherever on report. It has develop into my private go-to. Make it yours.
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Norman Lebrecht is likely one of the most widely-read commentators on music, tradition and cultural politics. He’s an everyday presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Road Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint, Sinfini and different publications. His weblog, Slipped Disc, is among the many most generally learn cultural websites on-line, breaking unique tales and campaigning towards human abuse and acts of injustice within the cultural industries.
