Mahler: Symphony No. 9 [Import, Live]

Gustav Mahler (Composer), Leonard Bernstein (Conductor), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Leonard Bernstein
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (February 10, 1992)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import, Live
• Label: Dg Imports
• ASIN: B000001GFX
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,861 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comparing Bernstein's three Mahler Ninths, October 17, 2005

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. 9 (Audio CD)

Since all three of Bernstein's Mahler Ninths have been reviewed on Amazon as the "best," I thought I'd sit down and compare them side by side. The two commercially recorded versions are with the New York Phil. from 1965 (Sony) and a live Concertgebouw concert from 1985 (DG). the third account is a live concert with the Berlin Phil. on DG from 1979. As other reviewers have detailed, this version was released posthumously; it commemorates Bernstein's only appeaarance with the Berlin Philharmonic--I think he had stayed off Karajan's turf by mutual agreement, although no doubt there were anti-Nazi feelings as well.

Timings: Although Bernstein's tempos grew slower with age, his Mahler Ninth was never one of the faster ones. The first movement takes 28 min. in NY, speeds up to 27 min. in Berlin, then reaches 29 min. in Amsterdam. (By comparison, Abbado takes 25 min. in his recent Berlin Phil. reading on DG.) In the second movement Scherzo NY and Berlin are around 15 min. (the same as Abbado), and again the Concertgebouw performance is notably slower, 17 min. All these vresions, along with Abbado, take roughly 12 min. for the third movement Rondo-Bulreske. The biggest change in tempo occurs in the fourth movement Adagio, where NY is 23 min., Berlin 26 min., and Amsterdam a very prolonged 29+ min., compared to Abbado's 25 min. or Boulez's brisk 21 min. Bernstein always permitted himself expressive freedom, and a case can be made for all three tempos, including the agonized farewell from Amsterdam.

Sound: The NY recording never sounded all that clear or detailed on LP, but the Sony remastering is very good. It is warm in the string tone, and there is a good orchestral blend. One doesn't feel that individual mikes are highlighting various solos. The Berlin recording is bright, somewhat thin, and considerably more aggressive. The balance keeps strings and winds a bit far back, while at times the brass and percusison leap out. Through earphones one can detect a low-level buzz, but overall this is good sound if you can accept Bernstein's podium noises and some intrusive coughing in exposed soft passages. With the Amsterdam recording we are back to higher standards, but not as good as in New York; the orchestra sounds thinner and consierably more distant. The Sony remastering is a clear winner here.

Orchestras: The New York Phil. plays very well but without any particular Mahler sound, and there isn't a great deal of personality in the phrasing. The Berlin Phil. is more distinctive, alert, and quite diverse in phrasing; the string section is sweeter as well. (The Amazon reviewer who says that the orchestra learned the Mahler Ninth under Bernstein has forgotten the excellent Barbirolli recording they made for EMI in 1964, admittedly 15 years earlier. The further claim that Karajan piggy-backed on Bernstein's tutelage is silly.) The Concertgebouw sounds very fine but not distinctive; the overall feeling is mellow and not extremely detailed, but they are certainly premier in their own right. All three orchestras are, and only the sonics let down Berlin.

Interpretation: Considering that Bernstein was considered a Mahlerian firebrand, his NY Ninth struck me as a bit bland on its initial release, but now it sounds very musical and balanced. For anyone who wants Bernstein without excessive personality, emoitonal underlining, and over-dramatizing, this is the version for you. In Berlin the interpretation is more intense but still controlled; the sense of a great orchestra giving its all is palpable. There are many new insights not heard in NY, and Bernstein has found a sense of mystery and dramatic suspense that must have kept hte audience on the edge of their seats. In Amsterdam this special ambience isn't present. Despite the long drawn-out finale, Bernstein is not at an expressive extreme here. He doesn't have a hysterical approach to this work in any of his three readings, but I'd say the Concertgebouw performance comes in third, with Berlin first and NY second.

Overall, I feel drawn into Mahler's world with all three readings, yet that feeling is most intense in Berlin. In Amsterdam Bernstein sounds autumnal, a bit weary and resisgned, and in the last movement he holds on to every note of farewell for dear life. But one msut remember always that this is Bernstein--these three readings rise to a very high level of artistic expression, and if the NY and Amsterdam readings were the only two that existed, they would be in the front rank of Mahler Ninth recordings.

31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To grieve, to heal..., October 11, 2001

By 

Jason - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Audio CD)

As Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University in 1973, Leonard Bernstein eloquently expressed his thoughts about the contemporary meaning and relevance of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony during his lecture on "The Twentieth Century Crisis" in music. Besides Mahler's own personal demons, Bernstein felt that Mahler's Ninth represented the death of Romanticism in the wake of Arnold Schoenberg's advocacy of atonality, and foreshadowed the very real horrors of the 20th Century: two World Wars, mass genocide, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and the period of crisis the U.S. was facing at the time with its involvement in Vietnam.

Nearly 30 years later, we have confronted our own crisis in the beginning of the 21st Century. My heart sank while I was watching live television coverage about the first plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center Towers, and then saw another plane explode into the other tower. I finally wept when I saw that a third plane had hit the Pentagon. I realized that many people had lost their lives, and that the lives of many more would change profoundly.

With the events of 11 September 2001, I thought about Mahler. He wrote his haunting Ninth Symphony and began work on his 10th Symphony just a few years before World War One devastated the seemingly placid status quo of the great European empires and profoundly changed the "Western world." At least two major U.S. orchestras had already scheduled performances of Mahler the week of the attacks, with the Fifth Symphony in Cleveland (other works on the program were eventually dropped in memoriam) and the Sixth Symphony in San Francisco. With the many casualties among firefighters in New York, I also thought about the story of how Mahler had been moved upon seeing a funeral procession for a fireman when visiting New York in 1908, and incorporated a drum stroke he heard from the procession into the sketches of his unfinished 10th Symphony. I also thought about Bernstein's musings that Mahler's Ninth symbolizes the cataclysms of the Twentieth Century ("the death of society, of our Faustian culture"), as well as the late-night drunken parties, keeping-up-with-the neighbors, and other quotidian things we do when death is waiting to swallow us without warning.

This Deutsche Grammophon release documents a stunning performance of Mahler`s Ninth, and was the only collaboration between Bernstein and the Berlin Philharmonic. The initially tentative partnership between Herbert von Karajan's orchestra and Bernstein yielded two intense performances of this symphony, if the first performance (the one preserved in this recording) is any indication. Between Bernstein's personal investment in this symphony and the playing of the Berlin Philharmonic, the result documented on this recording is incredible. Unfortunately, this recording is now "out-of-stock." I can only hope that it will be re-released on Deutsche Grammophon`s mid-priced "Legendary Recordings" series, perhaps accompanied by Bernstein's Vienna recording of the Adagio from Mahler`s 10th.

Compared to von Karajan's recording of the Ninth from a few years later, Bernstein's version may sound a bit overindulgent. However, what may be "overindulgence" for some may be an urgency of emotion for others, and that urgency is what makes this recording special to me. It's the orchestra unapologetically giving in to Mahler's music and Bernstein's direction with sweetly screaming strings, blasting brass, and thundering timpani; it's the pounding fists of fate in the first movement, followed by meditative yet wistful calm; it's the distended second movement laendler trying desperately not to collapse into chaos; it's the protest and struggle against fate in the third movement, re-emerging sporadically amidst the fourth movement's hymn-like Weltschmerz; and it's the fourth movement's Zen-like conclusion in the strings, transcending our fears and struggles, and dissolving into the vastness of the universe.

I ascribe to Bernstein's belief that there is something life-affirming and refreshing about Mahler's Ninth, even though it takes us to the precipice of death... and perhaps beyond. Reflecting on this symphony is like a meditation, a genuine prayer. And in difficult times such as we have been experiencing, we need Mahler's music more than ever to help us grieve, and to help us heal.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars trombones missing at climax of 4th movement!, April 28, 2007

By 

B. Guerrero "Mahler nutcase" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Audio CD)

In many respects, this is a very remarkable performance. But there has to have been a reason as to why this never was released during Bernstein's lifetime, and that reason presents itself at the start of the main climactic passage in the fourth movement: the trombones simply aren't there! This is no minor squable, as the trombones belt out the main theme of the movement at a full fortissimo. If you listen on headphones, something happens there: somebody falls out of a chair; someone had a heart attack - something! As one reviewer mentioned, you can even hear some people talking in the background. I'm sure that this would have been reason enough for Bernstein to not want to have it issued to the public. Too bad, because the rest of it is really very good, with just a few very minor slip-ups. The start of the Rondo-Burlesque (third movement) is'nt well coordinated. But once things get rolling, everyone gives a great performance of it. I like how you can hear the horns play their low A at the climax of the first movement - just after the big gong smash. It really gives the feeling of flames from hell surrounding the listener; rising to the surface. So, procede at your own risk. You might just hear the climax of the fourth movement, and simply not care that the trombones aren't there. If so, lucky you!