Search - Gustav Mahler, Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony :: Symphony No. 1

Amazing, moving, stunning

09/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was reluctant to write a review because I consider myself such a novice in comparison with some of the articulate and intelligent classical CD reviews found here on Amazon that are encyclopedic in their knowledge of the catalogue. I also do not have a strong education in music.That said, I do own copies of the Kubelik, Bernstein, and Horenstein versions of Symphony No. 1, and I must say these recordings simply pale in comparison. Kubelik's interpretation is solid and faultless, but somewhat missing in drama and story-telling. I appreciate this recording, but I do not respond to it. Bernstein tends towards the "symphonic" and lush; I've always thought that it's a great recording for introducing people who don't listen to music to Mahler's works. It's also "Bernstein," for better or worse. The Horenstein I just thought was flat, and so consequently never listen to it.Tilson Thomas's version with the SFO is technically brilliant, lush--but intelligently so--and narrative without being "programmatic." This version calls me to listen to it, and takes me into it. I marvel again and again at Thomas's choices.For better or for worse, I listen to a lot of classical music in the background while I am doing something else. 99% of the time the music remains just that: background music. But time and time again while listening to this version, as I said, I am made aware suddenly of its beauty, of its depth, of what Thomas is able to articulate in this symphony that I've never heard before. It's cliché to say, especially with Mahler, that symphonies create a world. But at the age of 40, although I am to a large degree an unsophisticated listener, and after listening to classical music for the last twenty-five years...this is the first time I can say that I have experienced a world, another world, listening to a symphony."

The most accomplished

George Grella | Brooklyn | 12/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This second CD in the in-progress Mahler cycle by MTT and the SF Symphony is simply without equal among recordings of Mahler 1. Now, to explain!The first thing one will notice, especially with headphones, is the exquisite recordings. The sound is wide, deep and rich, yet as transparent as can be, each detail available to the ears and specifically placed. And I'm just listening to the standard level, for those with a SACD player, I imagine the quality is even greater. This is a live recording, but crowd noise is essentially non-existant.Following the sound, the listener will be captured by the beautiful playing of the SF Symphony. Hard to believe these are the same strings I first heard 10 years ago! Their sound has gained beauty over time, rich yet light. The soloists, woodwinds and brass are all as fine as one will find, and the quality of phrasing and expression is not only very fine, but it is very fine Mahler, plenty of melting quality in the phrases, longer lines being passed back and forth between sections. The opening bass solo of the third movement is simply the finest I've ever heard in this piece, on CD or in concert. When properly played, there should be a quality of difficulty and anxiety in the execution, which should still be flawless, and it is so hear.And finally MTT proves himself an exceptional Mahlerian. Gramaphone aptly described him as less extreme than Bernstein, more emotionally engaged than Karajan. Well put. He has great command of this music; the interpretation demonstrates how he has thought through and conveys every phrase in the piece. The opening string harmonics are controlled, and the nature fanfares have a real lontano quality. Then the glide into the Ging heut morgen phrase is as natural as a breath. The tempo is flowing yet never hurried, as perfect a choice as one can find. Yet when the score calls for heat, it is there aplenty, with just enough rough edges. The scherzo moves from a beautiful Viennese quality to a classical flavor and back, the schmaltz and schmerz on the slow movement is slathered on, and the orchestra rips through the opening of the final movement, while the close measures are fulsome and dignified. MTT's manner with Mahler is to judiciously chose certains spots for the kind of milking Bernstein famously pushes thoughout, and for the rest to convey the music clearly, with portamento, melting phrases and the absolutely best judged tempos extant. This is a clear #1 recording, worth the price, indispensible to any and all Mahler lovers."

Curtain and Fanfare.

Bob Zeidler | Charlton, MA United States | 07/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Curtain and Fanfare" is the title of the first chapter in Theodor W. Adorno's Mahlerian analysis, "Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy." Immediately after an introductory paragraph, Adorno begins his insightful, if idiosyncratic, analysis of the symphonies with this characterization of the First Symphony. The work does begin, after all, with the sense of a curtain being raised on a nature vista, perhaps on a hot summer morning, with all the strings playing an "A" spanning the full range of octaves. It is a hazy, "dawny" sound - heightened by having all but the lowest double basses playing the notes as harmonics - that is soon broken by the imitative sounds of cuckoos, as if peering through this hazy curtain. Not long after, the first of the fanfares begins, initially softly, on muted trumpets. Then, soon enough, these muted fanfares give way to an explosion of stirring fanfares in the full brass choir. And by the time we reach the final blaze of the concluding pages of the fourth movement, there is no question whatsoever regarding the aptness of the "fanfare" appellation. In between the opening curtain and the closing fanfares, we hear a second movement based on the rustic Austrian ländler and a third movement that is a parody - in minor key - of the famous "Frère Jacques" song. The work is a "first symphony" effort so original and so distinctive in the way it announces the arrival of a new compositional voice that I think it has only one other 19th-century equal in these qualities of originality and distinctiveness in the genre: the Symphonie Fantastique of Hector Berlioz.



Over a four-decade period, I've had a number of "favorite" performances of this work, beginning with a now-ancient Angel monophonic LP with Paul Kletzki conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Other, newer, performances that have made their mark on me are those of Jascha Horenstein and Rafael Kubelik. Without question, though, the performance which had previously held the top spot in my listening preference is the (second) Leonard Bernstein performance, with the Amsterdam Concertgebouworkest. To me, "Bernstein II" seemed to best capture the youthful swagger, the gemütlich sense of the ländler, the irony of the "Frère Jacques" parody, and the peculiar combination of dynamism, nostalgia and forward-looking Mahlerian aspects of the final movement, performed with an orchestra which has had "Mahler in its blood" for, now, a century or more.



It is no mean accomplishment, then, for this Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Symphony Orchestra recording to replace my beloved Bernstein II at the top of the heap. In fact, it is a monstrous accomplishment. Recorded live at a SFSO performance shortly after Tilson Thomas's equally memorable recording of Mahler's Sixth, it is, if anything, even better than that one, which had been performed in the shadow of 9/11.



The recording is so realistic in its sound stage, and the instrumentalists so perfect in their playing, and Tilson Thomas so spot-on in his reading of the work, that I initially came away with the sense - and continue to do so - that here, at long last, is a performance that captures those uniquely Adornian "curtain and fanfare" descriptors set out above.



My highest kudos go to the orchestra musicians themselves. While unquestionably Tilson Thomas has succeeded in elevating the performance level of the orchestra beyond what it had ever been before, what I hear here is really something special. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fanfares themselves, whether unison trumpets or full brass choir in chordal harmony. The crispness and accuracy of attack, as well as the perfect intonation of these brass players, is something one is seldom fortunate to experience. And one really DOES know when these matters of attack and intonation are dealt with accurately, and when they are not.



There is so little that I can fault about this performance that it borders on nit-picking (and likely unfair nit-picking at that). The double bass soloist in the "Frère Jacques" movement, like most, uses a modest amount of vibrato when none at all is likely more appropriate. And, in the final movement, there is a quiet interlude - a period of repose - which, if listened to very carefully, suggests a precursor, in style, of the later Mahler yet to come. I think that in this rather brief interlude Bernstein II captures that sense slightly better.



But to me the overall balance of matters seems quite clear. This Tilson Thomas/SFSO Mahler 1 is the one to have. It's not inexpensive. But, unless you're an absurd Mahler completist like me, it's the only one you'll ever need.



Bob Zeidler"