Mahler: Symphony No. 9

Gustav Mahler (Composer), Pierre Boulez (Conductor), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Pierre Boulez
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (March 17, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00000613T
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,882 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #47 in Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Symphonies > Romantic
  • #87 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Romantic (c.1820-1910) > Forms & Genres

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Allow the Music to Speak for Itself, December 16, 2001

By 

Lee M. Mcguire (Urbana, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Audio CD)

I have been waiting all my life for a performance of Mahler's Ninth such as this. The "over-interpretation" of Mahler is a sticky argument that we could spend the rest of our lives arguing over, just let me say, I love Bernstein and his highly emotional and charged recordings of the Ninth. But Boulez allows us to truly understand the genius of Mahler's writing and orchestration. Every line is clean and unlike the intense dynamic extremes in other recordings of Mahlher's symphonies I've heard that might sound good in a live hall, this studio recording is clear from start to finish with an ambience that doesn't try to manipulate the sound, or for that matter, the audience. The opening andante is one of the most beautiful versions I have heard. Even and crisp, the opening motif speaks for itself, without the "emotional" tweaking many conductors try to milk out of it. The way the opening motif is written, why mess around with it? Mahler's genius stands alone. The sentimentality and the plaintive tone of the composition is in the notes. In fact, after listening to Boulez's version, many other recordings (including my old favorite Bernstein's) seem maudlin and less profound because of this. I don't believe one can be right or wrong in their opinion of this piece, it is expansive enough to cover a wide range of interpretations, but I am of the "anti-SWOON" school of classical music. Call it cold, but it moves me. I love subtext and don't need everything explained to me.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great performance, but not for everyone., February 2, 2001

By 

Richard Branyan (Memphis, TN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Audio CD)

If you appreciate the Mahler 9th primarily as a musical experience, you will love this performance. If you approach Mahler for vicarious primal-scream therapy, as so many do, then you will find it "cold," and should look elsewhere, probably to one of Bernstein's later recordings. I have heard at least fifteen recordings of this symphony over the years, and for me Boulez's command of the work's architecture, especially in the first movement, is without parallel. Boulez also reveals more of the work's polyphonic character than most. I must say, though, that the "4D" recording is dry and claustrophobic (one reviewer whose name I cannot recall aptly called it "relentlessly 2D"). My all time favorite interpreter of this symphony is Jascha Horenstein, whose volatility seems generated from the music, not forced upon it in order to put it through a kind of emotional bloodbath. But I would never want to be without this recording by Boulez, whose amazing control molds the piece into a convincing whole, as opposed to the string of febrile episodes we so often get.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comparative Review v. Lopez-Cobos, July 24, 2009

By 

Karl W. Nehring (Ostrander, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Audio CD)

Less than a year after López-Cobos's Telarc Mahler 9th, the Boulez/Chicago recording was released on DG. I was so excited to hear it that I could barely wait to get home and slap it into my CD player! On hearing it for the first time, my thoughts were along the lines of, "Man, what a great piece of music, and what a great performance and recording--right up there with the Telarc. Which one will I actually wind up liking better?" Now here it is, time to write out my considered thoughts on these two recordings, and this time I am going to beat around the bush, at least for a little while.

One problem I encountered in preparing my comments was that I found it more difficult than usual to take notes while listening during those sessions where I tried to capture some of my thoughts on paper while switching back and forth between the two recordings. The music was so engrossing, the sound quality so captivating, and the performances so magnificent in both versions that all I could do was sit and listen in a glorious reverie of pure musical enjoyment. As a result, even though the Mahler 9th is a long and complex work, and even though I probably spent more time than ever before listening carefully to both recordings, I wound up with a much shorter set of notes than I usually do, and will accordingly wind up comparing the two recordings in more general terms than usual.

Listening to the first few minutes of both versions, in fact, gives the listener a sense of what the overall differences are going to be. The Boulez sounds a bit brighter, with individual parts, particularly in the woodwinds, seeming to stand out a bit more prominently in the mix. Control and clarity are paramount, but the interpretation never strikes the listener as fussy or overly analytic. The López-Cobos version seems warm, tender, but never overly romantic. The recorded sound is slightly more distant, a bit warmer, and utterly breathtaking in its evocation of the concert hall, even in a mere two channels. One thing that really surprised me was that the Boulez performance seems perceptibly faster in the first movement than the López-Cobos performance, but when I checked the timings, the Boulez performance actually is slower (29:17 versus 28:24).

As the two recordings unfold, the differences I have described above pretty well characterize them throughout. The Telarc sound is slightly warmer, more "homogenized," and more like a real concert hall than the DG sound. But the DG sound is in its own way truly excellent -- clear, lively, and with especially good articulation in the lower strings. The timings in the second movement are within three seconds of each other, but to listen to the two performances, you would think that Boulez is faster. And so in the third movement, the lively Rondo-Burleske that is probably the most formally disciplined movement that Mahler ever wrote, but which still seems infused with wild abandon just awaiting to erupt. Both performances are tight and disciplined in their playing, yet both crackle with power and expression.

In the final Adagio, López-Cobos truly does slow things down in comparison, taking nearly 28 minutes compared to the 21:25 spent by Boulez. Because of this longer timing, the Telarc recording had to be spread over two disks, which sell for the price of one, with the first two movements on disk 1 and the remaining two movements on disk.

It is time, I guess, to stop beating around the bush. Let me summarize my thoughts and recommendations on these two recordings. First, let me say that both are magnificent, simply magnificent. The performances are incredible, and the sound quality is glorious. The DG disk is a sparkling example of clarity and precision in terms of both sound and performance. It lets you here every little detail of the score, but never sounds exaggeratedly analytical. It sounds like the world's greatest "studio recording" of the Mahler 9th, and is certainly the best Mahler 9th I have ever heard on one disk. I cherish this recording and will play it often in future years.

The Telarc, on the other hand, has a warmer sound that sounds more like a live performance. Although I may regret being so bold in my statement, I find it the greatest combination of performance and sound that I have ever heard on any orchestral CD, and the fortuitous circumstance that such a combination would come in service of as great a work as the Mahler 9th makes this disk even more wonderful. It is the greatest orchestral recording I have ever heard, and I recommend it with fervent, heartfelt enthusiasm.