Customer Reviews

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor - Resurrection/ Neeme Jarvi, conducting

5 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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At this writing, the product description does not tell you the available subtitle languages, so I'll list them: English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian.

This live performance of Mahler's Second Symphony is preceded by a five minute background from the musicians who make up a sort of "All-Star Orchestra" of those who wanted to participate and work with Neeme Jarvi. They speak of how this ad hoc orchestra eliminates orchestra politics, and lets them play just for the love of music.

The performance is shot in High Definition in 16:9 Widescreen, so it looks and sounds magnificent even on a large screen.

Mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and soprano Twyla Robinson both sing with heartfelt passion and clarity. The photography is very good, and in this recording, audio director Jerry Bruck has done good work in capturing of all the ranges of sound make this live performance from New York's beautiful Riverside Church a memory you will cherish as a favorite night out at a Mahler concert.

The folks at VAI brought us a DVD of Mahler #3, I bought it, and was favorably impressed with the performance, sound quality and videography. So, I decided to got back to that well and buy VAI's Mahler #2. Ouch. What's wrong with it? To start with, there's a lot of hoop-la on the DVD about the "super orchestra" that was assembled for the performance. Well, that's a roundabout way of saying "pick-up band." Way to0 much music + way too little rehearsal time = mediocre performance. The pre-concert intro portion of the DVD is not about Mahler or #2. It's about Neeme Jarvi, a very capable conductor, who every now and then has hit the mark in his Mahler recordings. But this is not one of them. He labors bravely to lead the orchestra through the score and does a good job. But if you know #2 well, this performance will put you on the alert from start, slightly on edge, hoping that the players don't mess it up. This makes it impossible hard to enjoy the music. Do they mess up? Yes, in a half dozen places--just often and badly enough to make you wish they hadn't. Throughout, Jarvi makes the same mistake that a lot other Mahler conductors make: He does not hold back, save the triple-forte for when the score calls for it, and then deliver them like quick, decisive, chilling hammer blows. The clarity is not there, and that is very disappointing.
A small point: The translation from German of the part of the Resurrection hymn in the last movement written by Mahler (not the part by Klopstock) is incorrect on a crucial point. "Was du geschlagen," refers to the beating of one's heart, and has nothing to do with "struggle" as the on-screen translation says. By that point, #2 has moved beyond struggle and on to freedom.