Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphony No. 5

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the important Mahler recordings, even if it may not be the best. The reason is that this is the essence of the pairing of Mahler and Bernstein. The conductor's willful, extremely personal way with this music is not to everyone's liking, and that includes dedicated Mahlerians, but anyone who cares about the composer must be aware of Bernstein's approach, and this is the one disc that encapsulates it best.

From the opening entrance of the full orchestra, it's clear that this is Bernstein. The weight, the exaggeration, the expression and sense of tragedy are unmistakable. Likewise in the scherzo which is bright, brilliant, and at times just on the verge of losing control. The adagietto is, of course, Bernstein and Mahler to the nth degree, powerfully emotive, like it or not. The orchestra plays brilliantly, the sound is incredible full and alive. Appreciate it, if not enjoy it - and I would recommend the equally wonderful and very different live recording by Abbado and the BPO, which is a perfect counterweight.

This Bernstein/VPO recording of Mahler's 5th symphony is one of the best. I read the review of the person who was disapointed by it and some of his comments are valid. There are times here in this recording where the VPO's intonation is not perfect and perhaps a moment or 2 of rough ensemble. I would say however except for the Berlin Philharmonic or possible Concertgebouw, playing of this caliber is hard to find.

I saw this partnership perform this very piece in San Francisco and it was a great performance.

I feel to, that this recording is a great performance and some of the best Mahler Bernstein gave us. It is to be much perferred over his earlier record with the New York Philharmonic and is much more succesful than some of the other symphonies he recorded in New York.

This disc is one of the best in his DG series with out a doubt...only the sixth in the same cycle is of equal merit.

I immediately bought this recording after hearing Pierre Boulez's performance of the Fifth on the radio. Why, then, did I buy Lenny? I went to Bernstein first for two reasons: for the most part, I am nearly always satisified by him. Second, I was well aware of his historic effort to reintroduce Mahler into the repertoire after decades of wrongful neglect.

At first, I did not know what to make of Lenny's version of the Fifth. The Boulez I heard was so precisely technical and straightforward that I could not reconcile it with all the power, idiosyncracy, and heart-on-your-sleeve emotion of Bernstein. Finally, after about a third or fourth hearing, I had an epiphany- -I finally knew that I loved this recording and would never be satisfied by another. I was indelibly stamped and will always recommend it to others. Just as well, I have been told that Lenny's DG version of the Fifth as well as Barbirolli's EMI recording typically elicit such strong reactions. Of whom you prefer oftentimes relies on which one you heard first.

In fact, I have gotten my once skeptical friend into Mahler after leasing him this recording. This is a fine testament to this recording and Mahler because my friend already had Mahler's Fourth but did not care for it; thus he concluded that Mahler was not worth the money. Now, not only does he believe in Mahler, but I, myself, now have all of Mahler's symphonies.

This recording of the 5th is undoubtedly the most true to Mahler's score and intention, especially in the case of the "Adagietto". It is wonderfully presented here. What puzzles me is the complete and utter misconception about the tempo of this beautiful movement. Most seem to think "Adagietto" means "a bit faster than Adagio", when it reality the title has NOTHING to do with tempo. In Italian, it simply means "little adagio", which refers to the small scale/length of the movement. If you want to know the tempo of this movement, look no further than the score where it is clearly marked - Sehr langsam (very slow). How on earth would any competent conductor take this marking, made by Mahler, to mean anything other than "very slow"? Did Mahler make a mistake? Did Mahler not understand the meaning of Sehr langsam? It seems that many do not trust Mahler to mark his own tempos - which is odd, because Gustav Mahler was the epitome of precise and in-depth markings. On top of it all, the second measure (where the 1st violins enter) is marked "molto rit, espressivo" (slow up alot, expressively). So not only are you "very slow" to begin with, but you get even slower in just the 2nd measure. There are other passages in which every single note has a tenuto (accent). How can you play these notes and passages effectively if you are trampling them in a nice Andante (like the Zander recording)? If you take the time to look for all the cues Mahler is giving you, and have a real sense of Mahler and his compositions, there is no way to speed up this beautiful little Adagio.

To the reviewer (Modée) who said "...the early tradition of interpretations indicate that a swift take is what Mahler probably had in mind, despite the 'sehr langsam'...", I can give you a direct quote from Mahler himself on musical tradition - "Tradition ist Schlamperei" (tradition is sloppiness). Take Mahler for what the score says.

So why do conductors, some of them very famous, take the tempo so fast? Because they are trying to set their "interpretations" apart from the rest. If you want to hear Mahler 5 performed as he intended, this is the recording for you. If you want to hear a conductor pushing his own agenda onto the music, buy another (and yes, this is the exact opposite of what you usually hear about a Bernstein recording - for those who see the irony, no further explanation is needed).

I've been listening to Bernstein's recording at least once a week for the past year on my iPod so I know it very well, the Solti and Barenboim recordings I have acquired recently. Although I still give Bernstein my absolute preference what is most remarkable about these three recordings (and I would bet I could include Boulez and Rattle) is the similarities between them not the differences. Tempos are similar, dynamics etc. Differences are often very subtle and usually a matter of the slightest nuance. I originally encountered Mahler in the 60's with conductors like Walter and Klemperer whose tempos were a bit slower than most conductor's tempos today. Bernstein brought it up to a more intense level. Solti generally likes very fast tempos and he certainly isn't afraid to push the music to the max. Just look at the photo of Solti on the cover of the 5th and you see he means business. Barenboim a bit more restrained. I think Bernstain manages to convey more joy in the scherzo and ravishing string playing but it's such a tiny difference from Solti's performance. While many people insist that Bernstein was just way over the top I argue, not by much. As another reviewer pointed out, look at who they're conducting. Three excellent recordings. Choose to fit your personality and stop expecting artists to accomadate your preferences and expectations. Their interpretations are not wrong. They are unique.

I confess; I'm most fond of Bernstein's Mahler. I'm independently fond of the Vienna Philharmonic, too.

To my ear, the opening horn of the Trauermarsch is the finest of any I've heard, and the brass overall is brilliant as sunshine when it should be. The sound of the recording is first rate, making a wonderful addition to any audiophile collection.

If you have a problem with Bernstein's concepts, especially of the notion that Mahler can't be too exaggerated, then perhaps you'll take exception. In Mahler's time, his work was considered like a `cheap novel' or perhaps worse.

You will hear, though, that Bernstein is powerfully thoughtful and in control. Think about that in context of the few detractors in reviews here. In the interpretation of a work of such dynamic emotional themes, should it not be that one mind brings into fruition the realization of this art with powerful influence? I think so, and here I find a great example of Bernstein's mastery long before he lost his energies.

There's a history, here, too. The Vienna was, once, Mahler's own orchestra. For a short time Mahler conducted the New York Philharmonic, near the end of his time. In Bernstein, we have the long practiced leader of the New York bringing Mahler back to Vienna. It was more than just a visit, too. We are told that the musicians of the Vienna didn't want to perform Mahler. They and the powers in charge of the ensemble considered Mahler too syrupy, too dramatic and overdone. Bernstein struggled to convince them that Mahler's notes were as sacred as any other. Over time, the Vienna's members finally took the music to heart once again. This recording is among the fruit of Bernstein's labor, not just of the interpretation of the 5th, but of returning Mahler to his former home.

Although many listeners and critics that prefer 'mainstream' interpretations to Mahler may criticize Bernstein's approach to this wonderful masterpiece as being 'sluggish' and 'non-emotive', this recording is one of my favorites out of my entire collection. The Trauermarsch is full of the darkness and tenacity that one would expect from such a titled movement, as well as the heartbroken grief in the more lyrical passages. The Sturmisch bewegt is made vivid by Bernstein's poetic intuition for tempos. The Scherzo is grandiose yet light-hearted, not to mention sparkling with the playing of a fantastic principal horn. The Adagietto has received a dichotomy of harsh criticism and glorious praise, namely because of its noticeably slower and more gentle interpretation. However, Bernstein's ability to extract the most profound, most beautiful, and most poetic subleties from this tender yet heartwrenching movement makes it one of the most gorgeous recordings in all of the orchestral repertoire, and I would never make such a statement lightly. The Finale provides a fitting conclusion to this awe-inspiring symphony, bringing both closure and dazzling newfound glory. This recording is truly epic, and although I enjoy listening to other interpretations (i.e. Walter, Solti, Reiner, Karajan, etc.), Leonard Bernstein, with the aid of the incomparable Vienna Philharmonic (the greatest orchestra in the world), presents the listener with a Mahler 5 that is unlike any other.

In many ways it is possible to recycle the same argument about Bernstein's interpretative choices with regard to a good many of his recorded performances. What for some sounds wilful, disjointed and self-conscious is for others exceptionally fluent and flexible. To some, Bernstein is constantly hovering on the brink of virtual stasis; for others, he achieves a timeless intensity of expression. I must say that listening to the way he attacks and develops the stormy, "Streng" section of the first movement nine minutes in, I cannot agree that the music lacks passion or momentum; I find myself swept along by the grandeur of the playing by the peerless Vienna Philharmonic. Bernstein knows what he is about and finds more drama in every phrase; the playing is always weighty, detailed and marvellously precise.

The sound is wonderfully full; the audience must have been bound and gagged throughout or simply as spellbound by what they were hearing as were the audience I was in last night when Gergiev and the LSO held us rapt in the closing minutes of the Ninth. I swear that his peculiar trick of imposing his personality on Mahler's music sometimes makes me hear a kind of American jauntiness emerging through the folksy Ländler in the Scherzo. Of course he theatrical Bernstein understood how to manipulate the subtle rhythms of a Viennese waltz to create charm and tension; metronomic regularity is kicked into touch but the orchestra follows his every nuance. The Adagietto ("little Adagio", not by any means "slightly slowly") is by no means so etiolated compared with many another celebrated version; it is a more passionate and warm-blooded take on the score which capitalises on the capability of the Vienna strings to emit a burnished glow rather than another of the "suspended animation" variety whereby the music just hovers in the ether. The last movement is just one great, arching, bustling burst of contrapuntal energy. Every time I think Bernstein is on the brink of indulgence, the music takes on an intensity and drive that disarms my criticism.

This is by no means the only way to play this music; safer, and in many ways just as satisfying, "straight" recommendations might be Shipway's or Barshai's bargain accounts (see my reviews) but Bernstein was a master Mahlerian whose interpretations were always valid unless you are a modern "Mahler lite" devotee.

To be honest, I consider the fifth among the weakest symphonies in Mahler's cycle, even though `weakest' with respect to Mahler's symphonies still implies a masterpiece. I also have a tendency to prefer Boulez and Abbado to Bernstein in Mahler (apart from Bernstein's heaven-storming sixth). I guess it shows that these things are complex; I hold Bernstein's utterly over-the-top performance of Dvorak's ninth with the Israel Philharmonic to be one of the greatest recordings ever made, yet I still think his Mahler is sometimes prone to excess.

In any case, there is no denying that the performance at hand is of the kind that just catches you in an iron grip from the very opening and just won't let go; this is, in short, a magnificent achievement, a performance of such white-hot intensity and involvement that - even if you, as I do, in general harbor doubts about the Bernstein take on Mahler - cannot avoid being bowled over. I suppose the overall conclusion would be that this is not the only way of performing this music, but grudgingly admit that while you are hearing it you are constantly almost convinced otherwise.

It is a performance of thrilling power and fluency, one that plumbs the darkest abysses and ascends the most towering heights with surging power like no other - but Bernstein remains in full control throughout, never letting the emotionalism get out of hand; the DG engineers have given the recording a vast dynamic range as well to allow the dynamism of the performance to be fully realized (and making it practically impossible to listen to the disc in circumstances where there are limits to the maximum numbers of decibels you can pull or where the tiniest whispers of background noise will obliterate the subtler passages of the work - still, I think it is a correct choice from the engineers). The overall judgment must be that this is an essential acquisition for any music lover; there is really no way around it.

I have heard lots of Mahler's Fifths in my life but nothing can equal Bernstein's version which is still unsurpassed, from my humble point of view. Bernstein finds the tempo in each movement (which is not a trivial matter dealing with Mahler) and conducts wisely VPO. I think that the orchestra sounds as Mahler would have wanted in this ideal recording. It is easy to be convinced of that by hearing just the beginning bars. Where in the world can one find such a solemn and powerful entrance like this? It is true that there exists some few minor errors, as it is true that absolute perfection doesn't exist. Believe me, if you want to get Mahler's Fifth Symphony, this is the choice. Barbirolli and Dohnanyi (the former better) are also great choices, but not at the level of Bernstein.