Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphony No. 1

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

 

 

This has been one of my favorite Mahler symphonies ever since my teenage years, when I got an RCA Dynagroove LP of Leinsdorf doing it with the Boston Symphony. (Remember Dynagroove? Remember Leinsdorf?). I've heard many good performance since then, both live and recorded. So I was not prepared to be swept away by MTT's version; I figured it could hardly top Bernstein I and II, among others.

Well, be glad that music doesn't have to be judged like some sort of athletic event. There can be lots of winners, numberless first places. This new reading of Mahler's First doesn't displace Bernstein or Horenstein or whoever, it just adds a new and enormously vital interpretation to the list. Michael Tilson Thomas's performance with the SF Symphony, taken from a series of live performances, might be placed in the "unsentimental" category -- but it's certainly not one of Boulez's bloodless affairs. Rather Thomas has taken a visceral, dynamic approach that seems to reveal Mahler's view of this drama through musical structure itself. The work unfolds naturally, without forcing, but with plenty of expressive power. You can listen to it again and again and still enjoy the narrative's relentless arc.

The SF Symphony sounds great, and SACD recording adds tremendous wallop. Not only do strings sound "stringier," horn and clarinet brassier and woodier, etc., but things like bass-drum thwacks and triangles really shock you with their astonishing dynamics and quickness. I haven't had the opportunity yet to hear the multichannel tracks -- my surround equipment is in storage -- but the stereo is terrific.

Michael Tilson Thomas is a phenomenal music director. He inherited the San Francisco Symphony in 1995 and has, since then, turned the band, which was already quite accomplished under Herbert Blomstedt's tutelage, into a world class ensemble in the truest since. Despite its few (but glaring) weakness - bad flutes and violins that tend towards thinness - the San Francisco Symphony boasts consistently fine playing and musically intelligent contributions from the soloists - droll clarinets, boisterous bassoons, a horn section second to none, beautiful lower strings, and rich, big toned lower brass. Listening to this ensemble - an ensemble in the truest sense of the word - is always a joy. But good playing only accounts for so much, and in Mahler, the competition is fierce. Thomas delivers here a very good Mahler 1st that is shy of great entirely because of the annoyingly tiresome rubatto that smothers the performance.

Objectively looking at Michael Tilson Thomas's ongoing Mahler cycle has been increasingly difficult for me mainly because, the more familiar I become with Thomas's conducting style, the more egregious the apparent faults become. Thomas's penchant for rubatto and mannered stylization started off as an interesting, if unnecessary, detail in the 6th and 1st symphonies. It became a bit more problematic in the 3rd. And finally, it became irritatingly obnoxious in the 7th and 5th symphonies. Thomas's insistence on smothering his interpretations with a thick coat of decorative frosting and fussy, mannered detail leaves a fluffy, decadent, at times even saccharine aftertaste which belies the often overwhelmingly high-level of musical nourishment these recordings offer. Indeed, nearly every other musical choice Thomas makes is a good one - it's just a shame he cannot discern between the good and bad.

Simply put, the first movement never takes off. Although the opening is rapt with tension, Thomas's tempo is just a bit too slow, which causes the tension to snag by the entrance of the allegro proper, which receives a somewhat faceless reading. True, this is not the unbridled frenzy of the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th symphonies' opening allegros, but so much of the energy and rustic charm of this music is conspicuously absent in Thomas's micro-managing hands. The orchestral sound has been polished to excesses, delivering opulence at the expense of musical character and a true idiomatic Mahler sound. The exposition comes off well enough (repeat observed) but the development section is just painfully slow, dragging where it should flow. It's really not until the climactic fanfare and coda that there seems to be any urgency or energy, but even then the brass sounds underplayed and the orchestra seems stubbornly in check by Thomas.

The scherzo, however, is spectacular. Thomas really has a handle on Mahler's scherzo movements, for nearly all the scherzos throughout the cycle (perhaps with the exception of the 3rd) have been uniformly spectacular. Right away, things just seem right as the lower strings don't just dig into their parts, they attack the music with vigorous rustic energy. The winds of the symphony have never sounded more characterful than they do here, delivering some really magical solo and ensemble moments. The violins contribute greatly as well, reaching vertiginous heights in the dizzying transitional passages. Brass blazes, horns shine, and the whole proceeding has an infectious energy. The trio is excellently paced, framed within the context of the music like the picturesque dance that it is. The return of the scherzo features some thrilling horn work that leads to a particularly exhilarating close.

The third movement goes well enough despite some atrocious flute playing. The various klezmer episodes are appropriately sleazy without sounding vulgar and the march is fittingly mordant and idiomatic. Which makes the Wunderhorn episode all the more wonderful, here receiving a lovely, sensitive reading.

The finale opens with tremendous energy, immediately building tension. The strings clearly articulate their parts, the brass is ominous without becoming gratuitous, and the heavy presence from the percussion adds to the vehemence of this music. Although Bernstein (either on Sony or DG) growls a bit more as the music transitions into the doleful second subject, Thomas has more than enough of a bite to sustain tension. The second subject features wonderful string playing and (as typical with Thomas) predictable moments of heavy mannered rubbato, but this music can sustain a heavier interpretive hand much more so than late-Mahler and, thus, comes across well enough. The vehement return of the opening music is quite frightening, due in large part to the wonderfully present percussive effects that really rattle the bones. The fanfares in major and subsequent cadence are appropriately bombastic without becoming over-the-top featuring some wonderful playing from the brass. The nostalgic reappearance of the music of the first movement is pastoral and well paced, interrupted by spectacularly full-bodied viola playing and some prickly sounding strings. The coda blazes in with the necessary pomp and circumstance, a bit on the slow side as Thomas predictably milks this triumphant music for all it is worth, but again, this music can sustain the heavy, mannered touch. A huge drum roll brings the symphony to an appropriate close.

On a side note, I think it is important to discuss the nature of the sound of the San Francisco Symphony in these recordings. The winds are quite lively, playful, and at times even coquettish. The brass is rich, powerful, but never overbearing. The percussion, while excellent as a section, has never been captured faithfully by the engineers - only in forte does the timpani cut through the texture with any real acuity. The strings are rich, plush and bright. Again, the orchestra itself really is something, and, as far as orchestral perfection goes, the San Francisco Symphony delivers a near perfect performance, despite its bright sheen.

Overall, Michael Tilson Thomas is quite well versed in Mahler and there is, despite all the shortcomings, a profundity of incite here. The playing is top notch, the contributions from the soloists are wonderful, and many of Thomas choices are good. However, his insistence on micro-managing every aspect of the score prevents his orchestra from creating a true idiomatic Mahler sound. The first movement never really takes off and thus, the tension falls flat, Thomas's tight grip keeping the orchestra stubbornly earthbound. And while the march and scherzo especially are quite exciting, the finale, as good as it is, still doesn't quite reach the heights of the competition - Bernstein and Kubelik being the front-runners. It is frustrating, really, when everything is perfect on paper but fails in reality. There is something missing in this performance. Perhaps Thomas needs to learn how to let go when the music demands explosive energy rather than preventing his orchestra from building the energy necessary for this music's success. Frustrating.

... along with maybe Chailly and the Royal Concergebouw Orchestra (Decca). But possibly, this performance is even better. Anyhow, ensemble of playing is simply INCREDIBLE here (as in the whole of this SFSO/Michael Tilson Thomas Mahler Cycle actually), this conductor completely in charge of every detail and nuance, making this Mahler First sound very much alive and fresh. The recorded sound-stage is wide and very natural, with plenty of 'air' around the instruments (I am only able to listen to this CD in two channel stereo format, but it all does sound great).
About the individual movements. The first movement starts out atmospheric and fresh, with crisp fanfares. The whole movement is charged with youthful energy and has a nice 'spring' to it. The floodgates are really opened at the very end with one of the most exultantly energetic perorations one ever heard!
The country dance of the second movement is beautifully and powerfully characterized; with nice slides here and there, enhancing the jauntines. Brass is appropriately piercing here as well (as everywhere). In the trio, Mr. Tilson Thomas makes wonderfully tasteful use of rubato. Everything is delightfully characterized. Just savor the beauty of the delightful descending string figure at the very end of the trio, just before the horn again picks up the main theme of the scherzo ...
In the third movement, the there is a beautiful characterization of the original klezmer-dance influences in the 'village band episode': exquisitely tasteful use of slides and rubato here as well! This music really dances along here, with flowing legato lines, but with an appropriate amount of nostalgia and melancholy as well. The quotation from the last of the Songs of a Wayfarer ('Die Zwei Blauen Augen', at the moment where the hero lies down under the linden tree and for the first time finds rest of the soul ...) is as perfectly characterized as can be, Mahler indicating it should be played 'sehr einfach und sehr schlicht wie eine Volksweise' ('Very simple and very slight like a folktune'): exactly as is done here ...
The final movement comes crashing in strongly, really sounding like the 'outcry of a wounded heart' Mahler describes, setting the tone for the ensuing row of fierce battles against Fate. The first chorale is ardent and full of hope, leading to a truly astoundingly beautifully played moment of reflection and repose at 'Sehr langsam' ('Very slow'), with beautifully characterized 'free' flute figures (anticipating the later Mahler)! After this, there is an energetic build-up towards the final triumphant chorale, Mr. Tilson Thomas whipping up every possible ounce of strength from the orchestra, while staying in complete charge over the proceedings.
All in all, to me, this recording has the best of all possible worlds: extreme beauty of playing, freshness and truthfulness of vision, and a conductor who keeps tight rein on all of the orchestral forces. Like so many of Tilson Thomas' new San Francisco Symphony Mahler recordings - and (up to now) especially the Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Symphony - the beauty and crispness of playing combined with intelligent and stylish conducting never ceases to amaze me! Truly invigorating! IMHO, this truly is THE one Mahler First Symphony to own (beside just a few others)!

The Performance:
This performance and recording of Mahler's 1st left me breathless. I don't want to reveal the interpretive surprises and ruin it for you, but what I will say is that Michael Tilson Thomas's nuances, phrasing, inflections, and dramatic sense work together to make this the most beautiful AND electrifying performance I've ever heard of this work. During the first movement I could feel my heart grow and my eye's swelled up with tears of joy and I could not help but giggle. The sadness of the 3rd movement grew heavy on my heart and the overcoming of something devastating overwhelmed me and took my breath away in the finale!

The Recording:
This was one of the first all DSD recordings released by The San Francisco Symphony's house label and the engineers have really done an outstanding job. I listened to this in Super Audio 5.1 channel surround and I can tell you that no other Super Audio CD or DVD-Audio recording has made me feel like I was really there in the concert hall than this one. You're sitting front row center with the orchestra spread out right in front of you. I've been to many live concerts at the Chicago Symphony and this recording comes closest to that experience. Finally, strings that sound like STRINGS and clarinets like live clarinets and brass like LIVE BRASS, timpani like real timpani, etc. The timbre of all the instruments is so life like. This recording has a very wide dynamic range but the crescendos did not hurt my ears like regular CDs or other SACDs, instead they delighted my ears!!!!

Conclusion:
BUY THIS SUPER AUDIO CD!!!!!! IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SUPER AUDIO CD PLAYER, BUY ONE JUST TO LISTEN TO THIS RECORDING!!!!

Equipment Used:
Denon DVD-2200 DVD/Super Audio player, Speakers - Wharfedale Diamond 9.6 for front, Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 for surround, Wharfedale Diamond 9.CM for center, and a cheap Audio Source sub-woofer for Low Frequency Effects. I used 3 seperate stereo integrated amplifiers, the Sansui AU-919 for Front Channel, a Sansui AU-D9 for center and low frequency effects channels and a Sansui AU-317 for surround channels.

This recording of Mahler's 1st has become my new favorite. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony give a dramatic and charged performance that truly stands above the rest. The musicians perform brilliantly and Thomas keeps you on the edge of your seat during every exhilirating minute of every movement. The triumph in the last movement has never been more glorious. Keep an eye out for other Mahler performances from MTT and the SFS.

I'm not going to, nor could I, offer a musicologist or professional reviewer opinion. Just a very brief perspective from an old Tilson Thomas (I first saw him when he directed the Buffalo Phil back in the 70s)fan and lover of Mahler who has several fine recordings of the 1st, including Walter, Davis and a long time favorite, an off air recording of Slatkin and St. Louis. Yikes! Prejudiced to start with...

Ok, so I downloaded the MP3 and am listening off my computer on a couple of amplified and rebuilt Baby Advent speakers in my study. Not some fancy SACD surround replicate the hall setup or the better one elsewhere in the house. But maybe the kind of rig many readers have, if they have speakers at all!

What strikes me about this recording is a beautiful clarity that, if it reveals some weakness here and there in the SFSO (which I have not seen since back in the 60s when Rostropovich did the Dvorak cello concerto and they threw high school kids out for applauding excitedly at the wrong time!), keeps drawing me back in for another very satisfied listen. How some learned reviewers here would find lack of emotion may be because they are a little harder to excite on the emote side than those of us who can more easily get drawn into a performance and the feelings it creates in a very basic way. A beautiful audio experience reveals, as well, some sense of what the performers may feel as they play and my old ears suggest excitement on their part.

In other words, sit back, enjoying the truly fine sound and journey through a wonderful piece of music. Download it for a first listen if you don't want to invest in the disc. You can't beat the price!

First, with the recent death of Carlos Kleiber I have come to the conclusion that MTT is the best living composer. Second, along with Montreal and the MET, the SF is one of the best orchestras around. Unfortunately I don't have a SACD player to play the CD, however it seems to me that the music still sounds terrific! Having said that let me leap into the symphony proper.

The first movement is one of an "earthy" feel. It is to be played both slow and dragging. It's ethreal feel (especially in the introduction and the development) is a tough thing to properly pull off. Here we see a terrific balance between that earthy, ethreal, myst like feel... and the semi "cheery" feeling of the later "Wanderer" theme. The strings are tight yet mysterious, the woodwinds beautiful, and the brass discreet, until the end... all as it should be. The joy of the conclusion was also spot on.


The second movement, one of general cheer and lightheartenedness is to be enjoyed by anyone looking for a good frolic! Some of the horns are slightly off as is some of the recording of the basses, but otherwise (and I am being very picky of those) it is a terrific joy... if you like happy Mahler. Though, I think MTT did much better with the trio. It sounds simple, and sublime next to the action that bookends it. Also, the horns are silented and the strings are allowed to play at full force... and what a wonderous force they are. They add a wonderful, and thoughtful, counterbalance to the otherwise friviolous nature of the rest of the movement. But even here we see the simple happiness of the bookending theme. The whole movement itself, as thoughtful as it becomes, suggests a rustic, simple, and relatively careless view of the world... a view that is crashed by the following movement.

MTT really gets at the solemn and measured nature of the perverted Frére Jacques funeral march. The woodwinds are slightly too lound for my tastes in this, but they are perfectly played, and the strings are beautiful as ever. The 4th movement Wayfarer theme that is stuck in the middle is used beautifully. The hiccuping violins play a perfect counterbalance to the main theme and perfectly pervert the whole issue. One can see why the orginial Viennese audience did not know what to make of this movement. Solemn, yet... randomly and pervertedly happy. When the funeral march theme retruns the bass/cello is played very well, and drifts off into nothingness.

Again to only be destroyed by the "Thunder bolt of lightning" ripping from a black cloud. I remember the first time I listened to this, I was laying on my couch and falling asleep, only to have this not only rip my from my semi-slumber, but also from my couch!!! So sudden, so dramatic, MTT again gives us a whirlwind that almost, but never quite, escapes his control. Dramatic, quick, sudden, and unpredictable. This storm eventually exhausts itself, and the listener, and prepares the way for the next beautiful theme. This theme is then pushed to the edge, the listener can hear clearly as MTT sets the theme on the knife's edge, and then destroys it. One can sense the music going through the rollar coaster, as a hollow victory is acheived... the trumpets truely show their wonderous ability! But, the maestro allows doubt to enter through the strings! The victory is seen as hollow, and abanoned! The brooding and confusion are truly allowed to come through. But wait!!! One can soon here the strings brooding turn into that mysteriousness of the first movement, and the bird ... it chirps again! If only for a moment! MTT plays the orchestra so well taht one can hear the faint hope... so far, so faint, so short... yet sooo rememberable! Soon an almost Beethoveneque theme is sparked... yes redemption and victory are possible! The finale is wonderful... while the horns are supposed to drown everything else out... here, they don't... the trumpets and strings are just too good to silence and everything takes part in the joyous finale!

If one has ever heard MTT talking about any of works, you can tell that he is an extremely inspired individual who cares about his work, and it certainly comes through on his conducting, and seems to rub off on the players... especially the strings. This, as well as the entire Mahler cycle by MTT, is a must have for any serious collection, and any Mahler fan or person who even moderatly enjoys him!

Thanks to his success in San Francisco and a history of good media coverage, Tilson Thomas enjoys excellent public relations, and year after year I read glowing reviews of his conducting, particularly in Mahler. So I am standing up for a small, dissatisfied minority, I suppose, when I say that I find his Mahler superficially appealing but lacking in emotional complexity. Of all Mahler's works, the First may be the least complex emotionally, but it still calls for empathy with his deep feeling for Nature. I don't hear that here. The mystery of the forest awakening in the first movement sounds prosaic to me--the birds twitter sweetly, but I don't feel an ineffable rpesence, which I am quite sure Mahler did--and although the San Francisco Sym. plays very well, they are more on a par with the Atlanta Sym. under Yoel Levi (Telarc) than with Abbado and the Berlin Phil. (DG). Except for some punchy, unbuttoned playing in the finale, nothing is deeply thrilling and a great deal is fussy and mannered.

Matters improve in the Scherzo. MTT doesn't dig into the earithy peasant character of the dancing, but his forward-moving, sunny approach makes for agreeable listening. The parody aspects of the third movement elude him, and he's too fussy with all of Mahler's orchestral timbres, but this movement is convincing in a somewhat mincing way. The finale is much too fussed over and mannered. MTT tries to make hay with rubato and constant massaging of the melodic line, yet as he pulls it around, one waits for any real emotional connection. He doesn't seem to know the difference between giddy and gut-wrenching.

As unpopular as my review is bound to be, I went so far as to fly to SF to hear Tilson Thomas conduct the Mahler Ninth, and I came away with the same mixed feelings. Everything sounded polished and carefully executed, but the real Mahler feeling -- stormy, manic, conflicted, fiery, doomed, and deeply reverent -- came through only momentarily.

every classical CD has its ups and downs, places that are fantastic and places that feel like a let down. of course, there are parts of other recordings of Mahler's 1st symphony that i prefer to this one, but at the same time, there are parts of this recording that i prefer over other renditions. perhaps the two most strking aspects of this series of recordings by the SFS/MTT is the dynamic range that is recorded on the discs and the accuracy of the playing. even the standard CD format has a wider dynamic range than some SACDs currently available, then add that to what the SACD layer is and it makes you feel like you are in the concert hall. as a brass player myself, the brass section here is amazing in parts, as they are in this series of Mahler recordins. the only draw back i find is technical. the website at the SFS claims that this recording, as all the Mahler series, are in 5.1, while the box says it is 5 channel. i have other SACDs that do have a subwoofer channel, but so far, none of this series has a subwoofer channel. this may be a mute point for those of you with stereo speakers that are "large" or capable of accurately reproducing tone deep into the bass register. i do not have stereo speakers cabale of that reproduction, relying on a subwoofer to do it for me. as a result the standard CD layer has a wider frequency range than the SACD layer. so it is a choice between hearing the full frequency reproduction on the CD layer versus an amazingly clear reproduction with a limited frequency responose on the SACD layer. however, if you are a real Mahler fan, then do not let this technical issue persuade you from purchasing this recording. it is incredibly enjoyable.