Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 10 (Barshai reconstruction), & 5

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bottom line on this set: Go get it right now before it disappears again from whatever music system you have access to in purchasing it. Now, some discussion points.

First off, if you stop for a minute and think about which world orchestra(s) is(are) your favorite Mahler orchestra(s), you probably will not select a youth symphony for your top tier preferences. But these performances, recorded live from concert performances, can hold their own and then some, even when compared to the likes of Berlin, Vienna, London's Philharmonia, and so forth. No, you will not for a moment think that you are hearing the velvet depth of string sound that pours out from Vienna or Philadelphia, nor will you hear that uniquely blended and brilliant orchestral tone that still marks Berlin (along with considerable stylistic flexibility, as early noted by none other than Peter Tchaikovsky himself). But probably you won't care a whit that the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie is not any of those bands.

These young players achieve their own class, glamorous and grand as their own burning commitment to the music. As led by Rudolf Barshai ... whose early claim to fame rested on his early brilliance as a violist, followed by his laurels as founder/director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra ... well the link to Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich is indelible, too .... the JDP just gives and gives and gives. Their instrumental sound is on the bright side, not unusual for a youth orchestra; but not so bright as to lack all tonal depth. They way they play for Barshai in the tenth symphony, you have to admit this Mahler Tenth recording to those exclusive circles of the great Mahler conductors revolving eternally in some starry empyrium. (That's how I regard my fav shelf.)

Barshai is not primarily an emotive, stop and go conductor, say in the Bernstein tradition. His conductorial roots seem to be sinking down, into that enduring soil we associate with the likes of Otto Klemperer, Dean Dixon, or even George Szell. His approach to Mahler's Tenth is relentlessly contrapuntal. While the musical lines sing, waltz, stomp, and do all that Mahler asks his music to do, you can still hear the constant, Escher-like logic of Mahler's endlessly transforming counterpoint, in which a theme or motif can assume an incredible number of seemingly disparate lives, yet without losing its way at all, in the end. In Barshai's approach, you understand how Mahler could see himself standing clearly in the traditional heritage of western European music, with old J.S.Bach as the first primer inter pares.

The tenth is played in a direct, intense, and entirely straightforward manner. Barshai himself worked through the unfinished sketches over quite a few years, bringing his own particular sense of vision to the completed performing version on offer here. As a performing alternative, it holds its own with the other available versions. It says a lot about Mahler's genius that each redacted version still sounds like genuine Mahler, despite the differences. For Barshai, the famous shrieking chord in the first movement is a great cry, but one that echoes into the near distant future wherein will arise Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. Even better than Pierre Boulez, who at times gets so objective in his readings that little or nothing of Mahler's warmth and weltschmerz remain ...(avoid the Boulez/Chicago Ninth Symphony recording at all costs), ... Rudolf Barshai can shape a performance that looks backwards and forwards with equal visionary and prophetic vigor.

But wait, there's more.

This set also includes a performance, again recorded live from concerts, of the Mahler Fifth Symphony. This recording stirred quite an internet buzz when it was first released. Now, you will again have to search it out, deliberately. (Given the low pricing of Brilliant Classics, you are really getting incredible bang for your small bucks.)

So, what about the Mahler Fifth? It is every bit as stunning and marvelous as the Tenth. From the first stuttering trumpet notes of the funeral march theme that opens the fifth symphony, you find yourself utterly convinced. Again, Barshai's emphasis on polyphony pays huge dividends, without slighting the narrative and Romantic dimensions of the drama. Balancing these elements is an act of genius in itself, I cannot help saying. And again, the young players of the JDP are with Barshai every remarkable step of the way. The strings, brass, and woodwinds achieve quite early the gift of expertly balanced inflection, combining rhythmic lift, and insouciance as the rest of the orchestra enters at the start of the first movement. Getting things this right is not easy for anybody. And they keep returning to it, vividly, within the rock-solid frame of the funeral march's steady pace. They leap all fours into the transitional second-movement, as well as into the third-movement Scherzo, without missing a step. Their sturm and drang is genuine to their youthfulness, and remember, this is all being played, live.

Soloists in all departments of the JDP are quite exposed in some passages, and there is no approximating this music by adopting large, albeit fuzzy, gestures or haphazard smears from soft to loud. The fact is, Mahler was also a world-class conductor who unceasingly tried to write down what he wanted played. Although his sheer, massed crescendos and dramatic gestures might lead you to think that all you have to do is put your heart on your sleeve and play hard until your fiddle catches fire, the truth is that you have to do that while observing innumerable and quite precise musical markings. Technique challenges you, athletically, at the same time as you play this great music. Well, my allotted thousand words is almost up. The posthorn solos are beautifully played, better than some older adult solists I have heard, indeed. The famous Adagietto goes well, kept flowing. The finale reaches heavenwards just as Mahler wrote it. If you don't already have these symphonies, you can do no better than start with these recordings. If you own other versions, you will still be happy to have these.

When thinking of the best orchestras to play Mahler, outfits such as the Concertgebouw, the Vienna and the Berlin Philharmonics come to mind. One would hardly expect a student orchestra, no matter how gifted, to be virtually the equal of these. But the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie under the greatly-underrated Rudolf Barshai, is simply stunning, and have produced what is for me the most all-around satisfying Mahler 5th out there. I admit I haven't even played the 10th Symphony yet, but I wanted to write a review of the 5th because even if the 10th here turns out to be a dud (and all reviews I've read indicate that such is not the case) this would still be a disc for the desert island.

Barshai doesn't overwhelm with the first movement the way many conductors (e.g., Bernstein) do, and the approach is more relaxed and lyrical actually, though there's still plenty of gravity and pomp. The relative lack of weight doesn't undermine the drama, however; au contraire, it helps the overall structure build and gives the first movement a logical flow into the second. (Actually, though, the central part of the first movement *is* plenty furious, while retaining an amazing clarity and focus.) What's most remarkable about this performance is for once it doesn't sound like five terrific but rather disparate movements; there's an overarching presentation here absent in every other M5 I've ever heard.

The second movement is where the real passion flows, and with these musicians it brims over. Many other conductors undercut the second movement by pouring too much vehemence into every bar of the first, but Barshai whets our appetites for the second with the first. (If this makes little sense I just suggest you get the disc and listen to it; it's easier to hear than to explain.) The third movement, then, is structurally the centerpiece of the whole work, something it is not with most conductors. (Indeed, it often sounds more like an afterthought.) This is where some of Mahler's most ingenious and persuasive writing resides--if a great interpretor can bring it out. Barshai is a great interpretor, and this is a great Mahler 5th. The contrasting sections are astonishing in their variety and breadth; actually I was so taken with insights I'd never had before that I thought I had previously been guilty of just not paying attention. So I put on some other Mahler 5th third movements to compare; it turns out I got the greater insights because Barshai's is simply the better performance, not because I was listening more closely.

That brings us to the famous Adagietto. Here is the only spot where I found I was a *little* conscious of the fact that I was not listening to a top-rank orchestra. It is simply too much to ask the strings here to have the airy persuasiveness and natural breathing of the Vienna Philharmonic, who for me are still unmatched here. However, the fact that we are talking about a student orchestra in *almost* the same breath as the VPO gives some idea just how amazing this recording is. Furthermore, this is not a "live" performance patched together from a half dozen or more separate performances; this was a one-shot Mahler 5th, and while rehearsals were undoubtedly taped as well (all producers tape rehearsals just as backup, in case somebody in row one lets out a loud sneeze during a quiet moment), this is pretty much a single-take effort. Barshai and his young musicians have a monumental achievement here.

The finale is the *first* one I've ever heard that is entirely convincing, sounding as though it grows organically from the music before it, with rustic joy and dancing rhythms. (Some conductors can't dance; Boulez can't be rustic or dance. His Mahler 5th, one of the most hyped in recent memory, is so bad it's almost a classical "party record.") Well, maybe this is not quite the first finale that completely clicks: I will have to re-listen to another obscure Mahler 5th I highly regard, that of Michiyoshi Inoue with the Royal Philharmic, also recorded live. I recall also being please with his finale, though not as taken as I am with the current one. The current one also benefits from better playing (technically) and much better sound. Indeed, this is one of the best *sounding* Mahler recordings out there, so even if you're a philistine who puts audio over performance, this is *still* my top recommendation for a Mahler 5th. I could only hope these musicians perform other music by Mahler. I would like to hear them in a 1st, a 6th, a 7th (where I think Barshai could make a lot of sense out of music many other conductors don't seem to grasp), and a 9th. This is one of the best classical CDs to come along in a decade and deserves to be at the top of the sales charts; yet because conductor, orchestra and label are unknown, it will quickly disappear. That would be a pity, because it's exactly intelligent, high-quality recording projects like this that are needed to inject new life into classical music.

Buy it, buy it, buy it!

This bargain twofer contains two excellent recordings that must be included in any serious Mahler CD collection. Rudolf Barshai is conducting Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, an ambitious orchestra that gives its very best under the conductor's baton.

First we have an excellent interpretation and live performance of the fifth symphony, well recorded. The disc is worth buying just for the excellent take of the adagietto, below 9 minutes in duration - at love song pace and not at funeral pace, so to speak, which is interpretatively correct. (Mahler wrote the piece as a love song but some conductors, Bernstein for instance, have wrongly presented it as a funeral piece.) But all the movements are equally well presented, with perfect clarity and balance. So this is indeed one of the best recordings of the fifth that we have. To my mind, only Bruno Walter's mono recording on CBS/Sony and Kiril Kondrashins USSR take on Audiophile Classics are better choices for the collection. But Barshai's interpretation is far better recorded.

Secondly we have an interesting and moving interpretation AND version of the unfinished tenth symphony - Barshai's own. Thus it is not Cooke's familiar version we have here, as in Simon Rattle's fine Berlin recording. Many times Barshai has made choices somewhat different from Cooke's. But there are not many great surprises. Barshai's version sounds a bit more extravagant than Cooke's austere version, however. Playing is excellent throughout, though not as outstanding as in the fifth. The engineering provides a clear and detailed recording.

Strongly recommended.

The JDP (German Youth Philharmonic) isn't unique in the world. The student orchestra at the New England Conservatory in Boston has also mastered Mahler under conductor Benjamin Zander and toured internationally with it. The JDP is drawn from the best students in all the German music conservatories, who meet three times a year for intensive concert work. In that regard they are like the Tanglewood student orchestra. This summer I heard the Tanglewood group under James Levine splendidly play Act I of Die Walkure and Act III of Die Gotterdammerung, both in one concert! Part of me wonders, not how a youth orchestra can be so good but why professional musicians sound so tired and listless.

The answer is routine, cynicism, and burnout, which afflicts all but the most prestigious orchestras, and even there it is hardly unknown (as witness the demoralized Boston Sym. in the latter years of Ozawa's too-long tenure). The JDP has none of that dry rot, so they play with freshness and enthusiasm. Those qualities leap out of every bar of music; the actual joy of music exists on these recordings. On that basis one could call the Mahler Fifth in particular a first choice. As other revieweers have noted, these students lack the depth of expression one associates with great orchestras, and Barshai is more in tune with line and coherence than with finding the emotional depth in Mahler.

Great Mahler recordings deliver more of the conflict in Mahler's world, yet in the same breath I am perfectly willing to sacrifice world-weariness, angst, and turmoil for the exuberance of these readings. The reason I don't give this set five stars is that the Tenth Sym. comes off more literal than the Fifth, in a completion by Barshai that doesn't speak to me the way Cooke's does. The introduction of extraneous percussion like the celesta and vibraphone steps too far over the line, for example. But the Fifth certainly deserves five stars. And despite his limitations, Barshai deserves more credit than Maazel, Imbal, Litton, and quite a few other Mahlerians on record.

I echo the splendid remarks made concerning the truly accomplished performances and sound quality in both the fifth and tenth symphonies. What I wish to add is that the Barshai tenth is without a doubt the first version of this reconstruction that I have had the pleasure of listening to, that I have felt to be a fully realized conception of what Mahler might have written, had he lived to complete this elusive work.

This is because the various incarnations by Cooke that I have heard, fine as they were, have always sounded somewhat flat, lacking originality in orchestration and tonal variety due to being done in a careful, musicological mainstream manner with the view that nothing the master wrote should be changed anymore than absolutely necessary and that where possible, bits and pieces of prior writings are the best way to flesh out new work. Performing editions which fail to take into account that Mahler was continously forging ahead in new directions and recycle old ideas render Mahler's compositional progress finished prior to the start of the composition of this symphony (at the end of Das Lied).

The musical establishment, particularly the British one, is conservative and has generally opted for being scrupulous (itself a noble sentiment) not to venture into any "new" territory not specifically sanctioned by a composer. However, to do so slavishly without taking into account that Mahler was likely doing so, at least based upon those portions of the original sketches of the 10th score that I have seen, seems to me to be unduely careful and results in boring reconstructions. After all, Mahler's colleagues were Webern, Berg, Stravinsky and the like, and they definitely were in the process of eschewing tonality. Mahler must have been aware of this. Music was changing forever and Mahler certainly could not have intended to be left behind. He spent his entire career being in the forefront of modernists. One need only look at the beginning of his career, when he interacted and some would say, freely borrowed, from his colleague Hans Rott, to see that he was most definitely influenced by his peers to strike out in directions that were years ahead of the current musical establishment of the time. As a result, it seems to me to be a shame that our musical establishment should render Mahler conservative reconstructions of his music, even today. I prefer this somewhat radical Barshai view of Mahler any time.

His version his been prepared one with the requisite knowledge and performance experience needed for this task. His is a Mahler tenth that will grow more interesting with repeated listening, rather than the clinical Cooke versions that have frankly staled with age.

This bargain double disc has not been re-issued and is hence now available only on Marketplace for inflated prices, unless you can find a second hand copy somewhere. All is not lost, as there have been subsequent issues by Brilliant of the two discs separately, still at bargain price, but there is something very satisfying about owning two such sterling performances in one attractive package with informative notes.

Make no mistake; these are in no sense merely worthy efforts by a youth orchestra but stand comparison with the finest versions. It is true that there is neither quite the depth of sound nor the sheen on the strings associated with the world's top ten orchestras but there is a compensatory sense of spontaneity and enthusiasm to convince the most jaded listener. The key to Barshai's approach is directness and honesty; there is no conscious striving after effect but a slow-burn appreciation for the architecture of the symphonies and a real grasp of the relationship between the individual movements which eschews overt emotionalism or obtrusive point-making. Some may find the Tenth, in particular, a bit "straight" but I like the extra richness imparted by Barshai's more layered orchestration as opposed to Cooke's starker, grander conception and the virtuosity of the instrumental soloists, captured in mellow, spacious sound with a touch of reverb, is jaw-dropping for a youth band. Barshai makes more use, in particular, of percussion than Cooke and sometimes one suspects a bit of overkill and hears a bit of sonic overload in its application, but it certainly commands the listener's attention, especially at the opening of the last movement; similarly, the tam-tam at the end of the of the second movement of the Fifth reverberates wonderfully. I guess it's true that weariness with routine and boredom with repertoire can periodically afflict even the greatest orchestras, such that that they may occasionally be outshone by the zeal and freshness of a very talented young band under the direction of an inspirational conductor like Barshai. And if it comes to technical polish, I would ask you to listen to the closing bars of the first movement of the Tenth if you want to hear string playing of melting poise and beauty. Nor are notoriously vulnerable and exposed passages such as those entrusted to the trumpets and horns in any way to be found wanting; their polish and accuracy are astonishing. The famous Adagietto in the Fifth does not linger sentimentally but is urged onward passionately by Barshai - probably a wise interpretative choice given that he could not hope to emulate the silky sheen of the VPO here, even with an orchestra as fine as the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie.

These are live performances and the odd, almost imperceptible cough obtrudes, but you are hardly aware of it. However, a previous reviewer is quite right: despite claims elsewhere that both symphonies were recorded live without interruption, there is an obvious edit right at the end of the second movement in the Fifth when the acoustic dips slightly and you can hear someone talking quite loudly in the background, evidently unaware or uncaring of the fact that snippets from rehearsals might be needed for later remedial work. It's a small, negligible flaw, hardly evidence of dishonesty and barely worth mentioning but once again one wonders how much we can trust the information we are given on discs, given how over the years more serious and even scandalous frauds have come to light - such as the EMI issue of the 1951 Fürtwängler Beethoven's Ninth dress rehearsal at Bayreuth as a live performance.

No matter, this is a great double disc.

Mahler's 10th has always seemed a fascinating proposition to me. I started out with the Wyn Morris version on LP and then moved on to the first Rattle with the Bournemouth and then the second Rattle with the Berlin -- which never quite lived up to all the hype it got from the UK music critics. Lately, I have come to prefer Chailly and Gielen and have started to enjoy the Lopez-Cobos recording with the Cinncinnati of the revised Mazzetti version. But this new one by Barshai (of his own "reconstruction") is really satisfying. There are moments where one feels the continuity more with Das Lied von der Erde than with the 9th in the sense of being more exotic, more forward-looking. It is also more refulgent and, most of all, sounds like Mahler. This is perhaps to be expected from Barshai who, compared to Cooke and the others, is a much more accomplished musician (founding member of the Borodin Quartet and long-time conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, etc.) And the sound is great.

Live recordings capture the moment unlike a studio job. Unfortunately the other contender for contemporary Best Live Mahler 5 falls quite flat: Abaddo's Mahler 5 on DG is somewhat banal and sounds like a second-pressing.

This recording, on the other hand, has as close to everything you could get in one recording of Mahler 5 (more on 10 later). With vibrant string playing, intense brass, sensitive woodwinds, and an overwhelming percussion sound at the big moments, this is a serious orchestra. I get to hear some of the best young players around in my area's youth orchestra, so I know there is amazing talent in the world. This is a college-age orchestra, but just like the best youth orchestra here in my place (which, unlike this orchestra, does not accept players older than 19), on recording, you can never tell it wasn't adults behind the stands. Incredible playing aside, this recording's sound quality captures nuances galore. Perhaps not every single detail is audible, but this is NOT one of your milked studio recordings where details, rather than complimenting the recording, pop out at you and sock you one to the jaw.

As for Mahler 10, I must say that if you are interested in Barshai's reconstruction, then by all means check it out. I personally think the first movement, (which seems, to my ears, to follow the original Mahler orchestration) is a tad slow, losing a bit of the lilt and "funkiness" of the strangely dark waltz tunes, for example. The rest, since it contains various differences, I really don't know much about; it is safest to assume you want this disc for the Fifth Symphony.

If it's the Fifth you want, buy this ridiculously cheap recording now.

I've listened to several versions of Mahler's 5th. This one is among the top. I should point out that Barshai's adagietto (from Symphony No. 5) may be a surprise to some who are familiar with the piece. The overall tempo is certainly okay (flows like a love song, instead of a funeral march, said another reviewer), but the use of rubato is a little distracting. While it injects a nice dose of energy into the piece, one must question whether a Chopinesque approach is right for Mahler. That's the only thing that prevents me from giving it a five-star. Otherwise, the reconstruction work for the 10th is marvelous. The performance of the symphony overall is certainly quite a pleasant treat. The bargain price tag certainly does not reflect the quality.

The pamphlet insert contains a nice little intro for the reconstruction (of Symphony No. 10), and a praise for the 5th.

This is the first Mahler 10th -- in any edition -- that I've heard that, as a performance, holds together as though the symphony were an actual completed work by the composer. The others, owing to their various realisations going all the way back to Cooke's version in the early 1960s (recorded by Ormandy at the time), all come off like jerry-rigged creations held together by baling wire and a lot of good intentions. Listening to it for the first time yesterday, it was a revelation in terms of the piece and what it could sound like. Worth its weight in gold, and the Fifth Symphony appended to it is also worthwhile -- and they make a great pairing, if one considers that Mahler never completed the 10th and spent more time revising the Fifth than he did almost any other instrumental work he ever wrote.