Gustav Mahler, Ivan Fischer, Budapest Festival Orchestra Mahler: Symphony No. 4 Genre:Classical Ivan Fischer writes of Mahler's masterpiece, 'There is a unique purity and transparency in Mahler's 4th Symphony. The enchanting slay bells take us to his inner child, to his dreams of angels, fairy tales, angst and pure, ... more »divine love. This child-like symphony needed a different orchestra: no dark tuba, no heavy trombones, no large arsenal of massive brass. A chamber orchestra in fact, where the clarinets act as mock trumpets, the solo violin tunes his strings sharper in order to scare us and the lightness of the whole orchestra lifts us up to his lovely, childish vision of paradise.'« less
Ivan Fischer writes of Mahler's masterpiece, 'There is a unique purity and transparency in Mahler's 4th Symphony. The enchanting slay bells take us to his inner child, to his dreams of angels, fairy tales, angst and pure, divine love. This child-like symphony needed a different orchestra: no dark tuba, no heavy trombones, no large arsenal of massive brass. A chamber orchestra in fact, where the clarinets act as mock trumpets, the solo violin tunes his strings sharper in order to scare us and the lightness of the whole orchestra lifts us up to his lovely, childish vision of paradise.'
CD Reviews
The best 4 I've ever heard
William Dodd | Castle Rock, WA USA | 04/14/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I don't pretend to be able to write as professional a review as some, but I do want to share my feelings about this one. I have 9 other Mahler 4's, and I've traded back many more. I'm familiar with the perforamnces usually referred to as the best. This one, for me, puts all others in the shade. The performance, the soloist, the recording itself--- this is what it's all about.
Fischer has a way of making works come alive for me. His Rachmaninoff 2 made me finally appreciate a symphony I always felt was a bit schmaltzy. His Mahler 6 made me finally understand a work that had left me cold.
I can't comment on whether or not he follows Mahler's requests, I don't have the score. But it just sounds..."right". And the multi-channel SACD layer is the most realistic orchestral recording I've ever heard.
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Every bit as good as Gramaphone/Classicstoday both say
B. Guerrero | 05/09/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When Gramophone and Classicstoday.com both agree on a Mahler recording, you can count on them pretty much getting things right. Indeed, this is very, very good. But then again, how much sense does it make to shell out the big bucks for Channel Classics (great sound though), when you can get the latest DSD remastering of Bernstein's pioneering Columbia Records Mahler cycle for not a whole lot more? Still, let's stick to the musical facts.
Unlike another review given here, I actually find Fischer rather congenial and, at times, "moody" sounding in the first three movements. A look at the timings will show you that he's no speed-demon early on. But the fourth movement is taken quicker than usual. Sound weird? Consider that both Mahler (his piano roll) and Bruno Walter were consistently timed just around 8 minutes for the vocal finale. One has to remember that the fourth movement isn't a cozy sounding aria designed to make an opera house soprano feel comfortable. Instead, it's a boy's view of heaven and, more to the point, the longing to finally "live" with plenty of food to eat, and plenty of excess time to actually enjoy being a lad with lots of excess energy. But even more to the point, is the fact that Miah Persson sounds positively ideal for such a role. In other words, she's convincing as a youthful lad.
In addition to all that, add on Channel Classics usual outstanding sonics - combined with Fischer's usual care for balances and phrasing (without dragging) and you've got yourself a first class winner. Too bad that that remastered Bernstein set looks so tempting though! (which also has a really good 4th)."
A brave try at fresher, lighter Mahler
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 04/14/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Ivan Fischer joins a new trend, already taken up by David Zinman and Michael Tilson Thomas, that lets air and sunshine into Mahler's moody world. This is a reaction against the complex, turbulent Mahler we know from Bernstein and Tennstedt, among others. The Gramophone awarded Fischer's new disc of the Fourth Sym. a Record of the Month gold star, but when you read the actual reviesw, there are serious reservations.
To mold Mahler into something brighter and newer, Fischer must ignore many of the composer's detailed instructions in the score. In essence, Fischer imposes his own upbeat mood, with much rubato and rephrasing. The first time through I was put off. Mahler didn't want a smile fixed on his face. But on reflection I considered the unstoppable flood of new Mahler recordings. He has become, you might say, our century's Beethoven, and just as Beethoven is subject to countless points of view, why not Mahler?
If I were reaching on the shelf for this new brand of Mahler Lite, I'd prefer the sensitive, imaginative Fischer over the unsmiling literalist Zinman. Fischer's Budapest orchestra isn't on a par with Tilson Thomas's San Francisco Sym. (for some bizarre reason the Gramophone keeps promoting them as great, which they most definitely aren't), but Fischer has the edge in simplicity and freshness. I can see Mahler shaking his head and wondering what happened to the much more emotional and tension-filled work he originally wrote, but there's a lot to enjoy here, not least the excellent, vivid sonics.
Some parts of the performance veer too far in the wrong direction. I can cope with the vibratoless violin in the Devil's fiddle second movement, which scampers along mischievously. But the slow movement feels bland and underinflected. It's wrong to strip such a soulful outcry of its romance and longing (not to mention that we get vibratoless strings again, which have no place in Mahler's idiom). In the finale Fischer pushes the tempo a fraction faster than anyone else I know -- he's gamboling through the fields of Paradise. His singer, Miah Persson, sings German with a Sweidsh accent but has the right lightness of tone and naivety in her delivery for this child's view of Heaven.
In the end I thought this was a brave try at something new. Better that than a sleepy redux of Mahler tradition.
P.S. - In the interest of fair reporting, one of the NY Times's music reviewers gave this CD a favorable nod, ranking it among the top Mahler Fourths on disc. One wonders if he has heard Bernstein, Levine, Abbado, Klemperer, Chaily, and a few other credible candidates."
The Stuff of Dreams
Eric J. Matluck | Hackettstown, NJ United States | 11/30/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I first discovered the Mahler Fourth over 30 years ago, when I was in high school. I don't remember who the conductor was but the recording was part of a compellation issued by the Readers' Digest. At the time it seemed both enchanting and disturbing, and I'd never been able to hear this piece as "untroubled." Unfortunately, every performance I'd listened to since then tended to favor one emotional pole at the expense of the other: too sunny or too tortured. So, for years, I'd tried a number of "classic," "sleeper," and "what was I thinking?!" performances, none of which satisfied. Then this came out. I had seriously unkind things to say about Ivan Fischer's "Resurrection," but loved his Rachmaninoff Second and so, after reading positive reviews of this recording from both sides of the pond, decided to take a chance and see what he was up to here.
Finally I found the Mahler Fourth of my dreams. With all due respect to others who have had their say on this interpretation, I find nothing emotionally lightweight about it at all. The first movement reminds me of the powdered candy I used to pour from a long paper tube onto my tongue: it seemed intensely sweet at first blush but left the most surprisingly bitter aftertaste. I don't know where that wonderful aftertaste comes from but I think the sound of the orchestra has something to do with it. There's always a special treat to hearing Mahler played by an Eastern European ensemble, with its tart winds, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra here offer a wonderful anodyne to what I hear as the corporate blandness of so many better-known Symphonies and Philharmonics. My ear was constantly arrested by orchestral colors and turns of phrase that seemed different but intuitively "right." Yes, the expression "like hearing the work anew" is in serious need of retirement but I'm going to trot it out one more time because it applies so well here.
I've never heard the scherzo done better. The solo violin sounds more diabolical than in any other version I know and the phrasing is wonderfully pointed. In contrast, the trios, in which Fischer achieves a sense of aching nostalgia, are meltingly beautiful.
If the glockenspiel had been given just a little more presence in its one fast variation in the third movement, Fischer's interpretation would have been, for me, perfect. As it is, it's as near to perfection as I ever hope to find. The opening cello melody and its variations are beautifully inward and profoundly moving and the oboe-led second thematic group leaves a lump in my throat. From there the movement builds effortlessly and inevitably, yet the "Gates of Heaven" episode sounds like the most glorious surprise (the slight acceleration leading into the E major chord is magnificent). Fischer sees this as the real climax of the symphony, playing it as the climax of the first movement magnified, as it were, and in this way he ties together the two "slow-ish" movements (with the scherzo between them), making a proper introduction to the finale.
For three decades I've found the finale the dead spot in this symphony. Not that the movement isn't beautiful, per se, but that it seems a sad anticlimax, especially after the adagio. By not overplaying the third movement ("beautifully inward" and "profoundly moving" do not mean "milked") and taking this finale at a blithe amble, Fischer alone makes it seem an inevitable and perfectly fitting conclusion, and Miah Persson's voice, shorn of any sense of artifice or souped-up "sophistication" is just ideal.
Did I happen to mention that this performance is more rich in portamento than any I know?
This won't be a Mahler Fourth to all tastes, any more than any other is or ever will be, but it's nice to be reminded, every now and again, that some things are worth waiting for.
"
If the recording is as surprising as the live performance
J. ten Napel | Rotterdam Netherlands | 07/03/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have heard this Mahler 4 with the Budapest and the (staggering wonderful) voice of Person in Rotterdam. I still have to get this recording, but if it is as good as that live performance, you are in for a treat.
The interpretation and the way the orchestra played was like I never heard before, it was definitely from an Easter European heritage and tradition and it made a lot of sense. I feel Fischer's interpretation sounded so logical that it rather stunned me that I have never heard it before like this. To me, it was like a fog was lifted of the music language itself.
That doesn't mean that the Bernstein's, Chailly's en Boulez's don't have great recordings, but they approach the music from a different angle. So, if it is the music you are after, get to listen to this.
