Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Gustav Mahler (Composer), Christoph Denoix (Conductor), Eliahu Inbal (Conductor), Wolfgang Schafer (Conductor), Limburger Dom-Singknaben (Performer), Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Limburger Dom-Singknaben
• Orchestra: Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Christoph Denoix, Eliahu Inbal, Wolfgang Schafer
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (August 27, 1993)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Denon Records
• ASIN: B0000034N2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #568,421 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, April 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Audio CD)

This is certainly one of the top performances of this symphony ever. Inbal is a great interpreter of Mahler without question. He brings out the music's power with both a keen ear for detail and style and a true sense of expressiveness. The Frankfurt Radio Symphony plays marvelously and the numerous solos are done expertly and beautifully. Denon's recorded sound is also excellent. Inbal's recording of Mahler's 5th is also just as if not more insightful, so be sure to check that one out as well.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than I expected!, October 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Audio CD)

As a great fan of the Bernstein recordings (both young and old) of the Mahler Symphonies, I was initially a bit skeptical and reluctant to check out this recording. But once I did, I was very much pleasantly surprised. Inbal's rendition of Mahler's most meandering symphony is clean and focused. It is far superior to the Abbado recording and in some parts even surpasses the Bernstein recording. Its only fault may be that it is almost a little too smooth at times. Still, if you are looking for a great rendition of this piece, look no further - this may be one of the best out there!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Despite lapses, a strong part of Inbal's Mahler cycle, January 30, 2010

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Audio CD)

The loopy Amazon review is far off the mark in calling Inbal's Mahler cycle "one of the best," but it is certainly overlooked. One of Inbal's main virtues was the superior sound supplied by Denon. The Frnakfurt orchestra is competent but not superb, so a lot comes down to whether the conductor clicks with a given symphony. After reviewing his ambling, often desultory First, Fifth, and Seventh -- none of them even close to the best -- I was amazed by the Tenth, where Inbal turns inspired -- it was a revelatory reading. With spirits revived, I've moved on to the Third, the longest and arguably the most difficult of Mahler's symphonies. Can Inbal hold it together and negotiate his way through so many sharp changes of mood?

The Third consists of two half-hour movements, the first and last, that enclose four inner movements, each painting a different world. Inbal takes a bucolic, genial view of the opening movement, much less dramatized and tumultuous than one hears from Bernstein et al. One plus is that his low-key approach isn't as exhausting on the listener as more intense interpretations, and for that reason I'd count it a success. There are vivid climaxes, with lyrical refrains in between. The orchestra plays with committed exuberance -- all to the good. I didn't doubt for a moment that Inbal clicked with this music. (It's startling how many modern conductors do -- the Third was neglected for decades even by Mahler's close disciples. One footnote to history is that Furtwangler conducted this work in the Twenties before dropping it, for reasons unknown to me.) I wish that the long trombone solo had been played by a stronger instrumentalist, but that is secondary.

The next two movements require the conductor to recreate the magical innocence and haunting atmosphere of Mahler's fairy tale Wunderhorn world. The music has enough charm to speak on its own, but added inspiration raises these movements to a higher plane than mere nature imagery. Inbal has a knack for phrasing melodies tenderly, and the warmth of Mahler's writing brings that out. He's a bit weaker at finding dramatic contrast, though. Still, the second movement's minuet is sparkling and alive. The third movement is directly based on an early song of Mahler's, one with more wit and bucolic high spirits than Inbal manages to find; I'm afraid he tames the music to the point of blandness. The Third was once known as the symphony "with the posthorn," and we await its magical strains calling from afar. Inbal's treatment isn't the most haunting I've ever heard, but he doesn't rush this passage, allowing it to cast a spell.

The dark soulfulness of the fourth movement prepares the way for the great redemptive finale, and so, short as it is, there must be weight and sorrow. Doris Soffel sounds tender enough but is vocally outclassed by many noted rivals on the order of Christa Ludwig and Jessye Norman. Inbal seems a bit neutral here, not feeling the direness of Nietzsche's warning to mankind. The "Bing bong" fifth movement seems to baffle many conductors, perhaps for the simple reason that they don't have time to adequately rehearse the boys' and women's chorus. Here Inbal is merely pleasant and his soloist adequate; the chorus, too, is nice but neutral.

Up to this point, only the first and second movements strike me as superior, so a lot rests on the sublime Adagio finale. Conductors allow the long arc of this movement to fall if they take Mahler's marking of "restful" too literally. He means it in the sense of a soul finding repose; there must be a haunting sense of transcendence. Inbal is betwixt and between -- he phrases the melody with a sure touch and finds a good, flowing tempo, but there's a certain neutrality and lack of intensity -- the music sounds lovely from bar to bar but fails to build into a cathartic climax.

Despite some drawbacks, this is one of the best things in Inbal's cycle, and anyone who takes a more lyrical, untroubled view of the Third than I do will appreciate it even more.