Search - Mahler, Dohnanyi :: Symphony 5

Violent yet tautly knit performance of 5th

Scriabinmahler | UK | 10/26/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an extremely powerful and violent yet tautly knit performance of Mahler's monumental 5th symphony played by Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnányi, a brilliant but hugely under-rated Mahler conductor. At times as ragged and unpredictable as Alpine landscape, every detail and inner voices of the score vividly captured with the glorious Cleveland sound. While Dohnányi exercises a mastery command over the architecture of the symphony, one gets an impression that everything he does is musically and emotionally motivated, as the most painfully beautiful reading of Adagietto displays, for example. In outer movements too, it is not just the volume of the sound, but the tension between the cerebral and the emotional that creates the maximum impact in the climactic moments.



Beautifully recorded. Highly recommendable alonside Dohnányi's outstanding recording of 9th."