Search - Gustav Mahler, Bernard Haitink, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra :: Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Thrilling Mahler from the young Haitink--perhaps his best

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 08/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These overlooked performances turn out to be unusually captivating. When Haitink recorded the Mahler Third in 1966, the musical world had gone ga-ga, and rightly so, over Bernstein's version with the NY Phil. It's hard to compete against the greatest Mahlerian of his generation when he's on fire. But Haitink shouldn't be labeled as a 'sensible' alternative to Bernstein, the niche he was placed in by the Gramophone. This is a tremendous reading, better played and recorded than the Bernstein--in all respects the Concertgebouw is astonishing.



And Haitink himself surpasses all but the smallest handful of conductors in the excitement and visceral impact of his interpretation. Rather than go into detail, let me say that the titanic first movement lacks nothing in drama and thrills. The gentler second and third movements are played a bit too strictly in time (the second in particular could dance more lightly). Even so, we're talking about Mahler being played at the highest level, and the Concertgebouw winds make marvelous nature sounds in the Wunderhorn music. The offstage posthorn (it sounds like a trumpet here) could be more ghostly and melancholy. Haitink in general is a cheerful Mahler interpreter, however.



Singing 'O Mensch, Gib acht!' is the young Maureeen Forrester, in rich, expressive voice. Haitink takes this movement faster than almost anyone else at 8:43, but its tragic impact isn't harmed. The chorus in the fifth movement is dominated by women over the boys' choir; Haitink is plain and cheerful rather than evocative. The great Adagio finale is always helped by a string section whose tone can be heartbreakingly beautiful. The eloquence of the strings here makes you hold your breath from the first note, and Haitink displays his gift for shaping a slow melody, one of the prime tests of a great conductor.



It's strange that the Originals cover doesn't indicate the substantial filler, a 1973 reading of Mahler's early 'fairy tale for the concert hall,' Das klagende Lied. Finished when the composer was barely twenty, Klagende Lied waited twenty years to be premiered, by which time Mahler cut the half-hour first movement, leaving only the last two. Haitink performs only those, but they icnlude the most intense, concentrated music. His is a veyr fine performance, yet another reason to rejoice over this reissue."

Great Performance Horrendously Overly Remastered

Jon. Yungkans | Whittier, CA USA | 05/25/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The small bit of the performance that I heard was lively, full-throated in its excitement. What a let-down, then, that the remastered sound was so artificial. The instrumentalists sounded as though they had been vacuum-wrapped in plastic. There was no audio hiss but also no air space or what should have been the natural sounds of the instruments, especially the brass."