Mahler: Symphony No. 9 / Boulez: Rituel / Notations I-IV, VII ~ Gielen

Pierre Boulez (Composer), Gustav Mahler (Composer), Michael Gielen (Conductor), SWR Baden-Baden and Freiburg Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: SWR Baden-Baden and Freiburg Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Michael Gielen
• Composer: Pierre Boulez, Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (August 1, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Hanssler Classics
• ASIN: B0009I7OG6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,775 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

"Michael Gielen's Mahler cycle is now complete, and as predicted it moves straight to the top of the list as the most idiomatic and consistent single set currently available." - CLASSICSTODAY.COM

Gielen’s Mahler interpretations have attained an almost cult status among collectors. This unique program includes works by 20th century composer and fellow conductor Pierre Boulez.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The pinnacle in Gielen's Mahler cycle, a Ninth touched by inspiration, October 29, 2008

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Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 / Boulez: Rituel / Notations I-IV, VII ~ Gielen (Audio CD)

I have been as guilty as anyone in hauling out the same adjectives for Michael Gielen -- cool, objective, modernist, analytical -- but I've tried to temper my knee-jerk reflex by noting whenever he displays what is best in his Mahler: real ideas, personal feeling, a flexible beat, and a borad conception. The best certainly comes out in this Ninth Sym.,, and perhaps it's no coincidence that Gielen was relatively young (67) when he made the recording in 1994.

Because he enters the field with a second-tier radio orchestra situated in Baden-Baden, Gielen needs a strong conception to compete with the likes of the Berlin and Vienna Phil., not to mention that the Ninth has received many great readings(from Bernstein, Levine, Bruno Walter, Abbado, Barbirolli, and Karajan, just to mention some personal favorites). To my amazement, really, Gielen stands up to the best in strength, vision, and ability to handle Mahler's most complex technical writing. In fact, he's so inspired that the SWR SO musicians rise far higher in their execution than in any other installment in Gielen's Mahler cycle.

The litmus test in the Ninth is the first movement, where every detail of tempo, balance, and contrasted moods is tricky. But also, this music is as wrenching as any ever written, and so the more overwhelming your conception, the more successful you will be. Gielen is as overwhelming as Bernstein, which gives you the measure of the controlled chaos that he rules over. I was immensely moved.

Pointing to the satirical element in the clomping Scherzo, Simon Rattle said that this movement represents everything Mahler hated about the country, while the Rondo-Burleske that follows stands for everything he hated about the city. Gielen isn't satirical at all, however, but almost staid, as deliberate as Klemperer if not as poker-faced. Happily, he rings many changes of mood and timbre, giving us a valid alternative to the mockery that this music implies. The Rondo-Burleske has a strong through-line (as does the first movement), which keeps it from getting scrambled up in corss-talk and counterpoint. Other conductors take the opposite course, assuming that Mahler wanted the effect of arguing voices fighting to be heard over each other, but Gielen's more controlled approach seems just as valid, if less manic than, say, the demonic Bernstein and Levine. Inexplicabl, there are several minutes of lackluster noodling before the final climax.

The concluding Adagio is one of the absolute pinnacles in Mahler and demands utmost concentration and focus. It wasn't encouraging that Gielen changes Mahler's instruction of "very slow" to merely "slow," but it's not his way to wrench emotion from the listener. As in the great final Adagio to the Third Sym., Gielen saves himself with an instinctive grasp for long, arching lines. His conception here, which I've never encountered before, is to start out in a relaxed mood, build steadily with a lithe, quick-moving line, reaching a point of maximum intensity, after which the extended farewell, often agonizing in its heartbreaking hush, remains equally lithe and almost nimble. Does it work? Well, Gielen shifts the emotional ground away from tragedy, and in purely musical terms he doesn't falter for a single measure. As one is compelled to say in several other movements, Gielen has thought of a valid alternative.

Many buyers will resist a two-disc Mahler Ninth, so laying out extra money may depend on how you feel about Boulez's 'Notations' and 'Rituel' in memory of the Italian-German composer-conductor Bruno Maderna, who died young in 1973 at the age of 53 (and who was a highly indidivual interpreter of the Mahelr Ninth -- is that the link here?). I find the transiton to mid-century atonalism jarring. It's a cliche to say that the Mahler Ninth harmonically pointed to the future. If that's true, it wasn't this future he had in mind. Gielen's performance seems to be all that it should be in terms of clarity and atmosphere.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A truly great Ninth - just shy of reference, December 11, 2010

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Prescott Cunningham Moore (San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 / Boulez: Rituel / Notations I-IV, VII ~ Gielen (Audio CD)

Gielen's Ninth is just shy of the greatness achieved by the trio of great Ninths from Ancerl, Bernstein, and Chailly. Part of this rests on the fact that the orchestra's in Prague and Amsterdam have Mahler in their blood, at least more so than their counterparts in Friedberg. This means that last ounce of fervor in the Rondo and color in the dance are missing. However, Gielen's interpretation is a real winner because it has such a distinctive point of view. Few conductors have so convincingly tied Mahler's disparate parts together with such convincing clarity. For example, Gielen's very drab and plain-faced opening to the dance makes total sense after the dark resignation of the first movement's coda and he uses this straightforward beginning to make the successive returns of the slow dance all the more dramatic when clothed in brighter colors. This also has the effect of making the fast dance all the more grotesque, with Gielen's players making some appropriately revolting and vulgar sounds, just as Mahler would have intended. Another example is the central section of the Rondo, where Gielen slows the tempo down so as to build a better anticipatory relationship with the finale. It's just very smart and well done because so many conductors - Tilson Thomas, Zinman, Abbado, Rattle to name a few - sometimes loose track of the big picture.

While the interpretation itself is a real winner and is certainly necessary in any Mahler collection, there are some less-than-ideal moments. Gielen's first movement opens and closes excellently, the orchestra's rougher timbre creating some dark and heavy sounds leading up to the first big climax and throughout the entirely of the recapitulation and coda. But the development is not as fantastic as, say Bernstein's, because Gielen rushes the first climax while the second climatic collapse into the opening rhythm isn't a terrifying as it could, and should, be. Gielen's very deliberate tempo for the Rondo allows for a great deal of textural clarity, but it is not as exciting as Chailly. The even numbered movements, however, a really about as fine as you're likely to find, especially if you want a faster paced adagio. Gielen obviously does not view the Ninth as Mahler's last will and testament, as he does record the Cooke Tenth and, as such, the finale is much more exciting and defiant than lugubrious and resigned. Certainly a valid view indeed.

A wonderful Ninth worth acquiring if you are not interested in Gielen's entire cycle. The Boulez is a nice filler and, as always, Gielen makes a very good case for Mahler the modern expressionist with the coupling. Still, Gielen's cycle is well worth acquiring in toto. There is not a bad performance in the lot while many, including 1, 5, 7, and 10 rank with the best available.