Mahler: Symphony No. 9 [Live]

Gustav Mahler (Composer), Herbert von Karajan (Conductor), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (October 11, 1994)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B000001GK9
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,641 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 11-OCT-1994

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest performances of any piece on record, October 7, 1998

By 

Stephen Chakwin (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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

I write about music, including Mahler, for American Record Guide and have known this music for more than 30 years. Yet, when I heard this recording, it was like hearing the piece for the first time. Karajan gets the spirit and life of this symphony onto discs like nobody before or since. The playing -- though not note-perfect, it was recorded in concert -- is full of intensity and beauty and the range of the piece is all there, from the halting exploration of the opening, through the wit and nostalgia of the second movement and the biting fury of the third. The finale, though, is the jewel of the performance, gorgeous and heartfelt with a fiery bridge into the closing pages, played here with a transfigured peace and deep love and optimism instead of the pathos or sentimentality of lesser performances. If you think of Mahler as a Woody Allen composer, weak and vulnerable and passive, this is not the reading for you, but if you see him as a strong, sensitive, but heroic creator, don't miss this recording.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, powerful in its own way, May 2, 2005

By 

Kenji Fujishima (East Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Audio CD)

Mahler's Ninth Symphony is arguably both his most deeply moving and his most enigmatic. It is as if Mahler was looking back on his own life through a distorting musical mirror, seeing moments of peace and struggle along the way. (The first movement of the Ninth is all about that struggle, with peace eventually winning out.) But then, as the final quiet notes slowly die away, Mahler seems to have looked forward and accepted his impending death. In death, he finally finds a kind of spiritual peace.

Lest that sound a bit too self-consciously poetic for some, I defy you to come away from this classic recording of Mahler's Ninth and not see it in a similar way---and not be deeply moved.

At the very least, Herbert von Karajan, in this live 1982 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, shows that the Ninth is not merely a tragic utterance. Leonard Bernstein often interpreted this valedictory symphony as personal tragedy; thus, in his final Royal Concertgebouw recording of the Ninth, he stretched that final Adagissimo nearly to the breaking point, as if he felt Mahler could not bear to let those notes go. As usual with the charismatic Bernstein, the sheer intensity of the performance---and that Concertgebouw Ninth sure was intense, especially the drawn-out concluding Adagio---disarms criticism. But, as Herbert von Karajan convincingly proves with this performance, it may not be the whole story as far as Mahler's Ninth is concerned. In Karajan's interpretation of the Adagio, there is nobility to go along with the sadness, and, as performed gloriously by the Berlin Philharmonic, it is equally moving.

Karajan may not be everybody's idea of the ideal Mahler conductor. Those who learned Mahler's Ninth through Bernstein's numerous recordings might miss the expressive freedom Bernstein brought to his performances. Karajan is more content on securing beauty of sound and maintaining the musical line than necessarily transforming lives through music. But while Bernstein perhaps is a little insistent on presenting the music in a certain way, Karajan allows the music and its underlying emotions to speak for itself. And while some might argue that Mahler was never much of a subtle composer---and I wouldn't wholly disagree with that---Karajan's more modest approach still manages to pay dividends in this performance. It may not always sound like Mahler (or, at least, Bernstein's popular supercharged vision of Mahler), but it is hardly as emotionally sterile as some of its critics have made it out to be. Listen, for example, to the bitter intensity the Berlin Philharmonic brings to the work's demonic third movement; surprisingly, for all its technical perfection, it never sounds merely careful. And those strings in the final Adagio---what heartbreaking beauty!

This 1982 recording of Mahler's Ninth may not be the only one you'll want to hear---Bernstein is almost never easily dismissed in Mahler, especially in his recording of the Ninth, which he saw as one of Mahler's central works, a work for our troubled times. But Karajan's noble interpretation is just as valid as Bernstein's tragic view; it is, indeed, powerful in its own way. Recommended.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST- Viennese for eternity, January 13, 2004

By 

Roy U. Rojas Wahl (Teaneck, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Audio CD)

I own this recording since several years, and have continuously compared against others: Bernstein, Zander, Abbado, Walter, Barbirolli, to name a few. And man, no matter how I twist and turn it, I ALWAYS come back to this one. And each time just to realize: This IS the BEST out there. Period.

I have reviewed this recording already before ("For eternity", see below), and it is unusual for me to write a second review (actually, it is the first time). But this recording is different, and demands an exception.
I once heard Sir Simon Rattle say that everything about Mahler should be seen as being totally Viennese. And here I re-listen to this recording, only to suddeny realize: This IS the difference. Sir Simon is right! This recording, it's energy, it's rhythms, it's movements, the underlying "waltzing", it's entire style and attitude, it's fragility (1st movement), burleske (Laendler, 3rd movement) and shining optimism (4th movement) (Karajan was Austrian anyway) ARE totally Viennese, from the first bar to the last. It is as if Karajan listened to Rattle (How is that possible?), or vice versa?

Anyway, as mentioned. Now, with some more experience,"for Viennese eternity".