Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphony No. 9

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

 

 

Very fine conducting from Kubelik here in the D minor Ninth..the amazing thing here is the the Pathos!!! The opening is truly sad as we hear the time running out for dear old Gustav...this is not the kind of music we should listen to in the bed before the sleeping hours...there is a haunting almost depraved sadness in this interpreatation...not for the weak of heart!!

I can only compare this to Karajan who is also very fine in this music...the Bavarian woodwinds have always been a plus..the tanginess of the the sound mixed with the sonority of the Bavarian Rundfunks Orckester Brass will always be special to me...there is an element of the macabre in this interpretation that is always an appeal to me here..

Kubelik is a conductor I have also worked under...to me this is a very special recording!! Greatness!!!

I basically second the judgment of the previous reviewer; however I would note that the album cover indicates that the performance is from 1975, not 1967.
Kubelik does a wonderful job of balancing the aching lyrical beauty against the dark dramatic fatalism of the music. He uses rubato in a very masterful, telling way to highlight key phrases, climaxes and transitions. The recording is very clear sounding, and Kubelik further enhances the clarity of the work's considerable contrapuntal detail by employing divided violins.
It is a performance that, while it avoids extremes, lacks nothing in its commitment and intensity. Buy it!

I own more than a *few* M9s. My first was the historic 1939 Walter, but the mono sound was SO bad, I only listened to it occasionally. When I got the Bernstein NYPO, everything shot off like a rocket from there. (It was the STEREO sound and the much longer finale that did it.) Thus, now I have 12 recordings of the M9.

Anyway, let me point out that the Audite performance presented here is NOT the same performance of Kubelik's that you'll find on DG (which I own on single disc under the Resonance label); instead, the Audite is supremely better! What was wrong with the DG performance? Basically, the sound was crass and the playing less than exquisite. Oh, and I felt that the finale was much too swift. None of those problems are present in Kubelik's Audite account.

The Audite is a live 1967 concert performance from Tokyo, Japan. Unlike the DG account, the Audite CD boasts fabulous playing and total committment throughout, full of fire and passion. Most importantly, this version seems to find a perfect balance between simply playing what the composer wrote and satisfying the need for the conductor to express himself through interpretation of the music. The only thing I might warn some of you about is that this is, afterall, a single disc ninth, so the movements might be a little too swift for some of you at parts. But that's only a minor admonition. If you own the Bernstein/NYPO, Haitink, or Barbirolli single disc accounts, you will no doubt love this recording.

Thus, for those reasons above, I strongly recommend this disc to you. Kubelik's Audite M9 is most definitely in my top five to ten single disc recordings of the ninth.

Go for it!

This Tokyo Live recording of 9th is one of the best from Audite Mahler / Kubelik live series. As usual, Kubelik's commitment and devotion to the music is eveident, nothing is left to chances nor under-stated.

1st movement is sumptuous and builds up gradually to incandescent climax. Middle movement is exceptionally energetic and boisterous. Last movement is fast, but that does not detract from gravity and poignancy of the music, in fact the most eloquent last movement I've listened to among all 1disc recordings of the work.

Acoustics is very good and spacious with much emphasis on bass. A must-buy for anyone who admires Kubelik, or anyone who seeks great recording of 9th played in brisk tempi yet with dignity and profundity.

This is a live recording of the piece, done in Japan in 1975. The sound is excelent. I presume that by then, conductor and orchestra had the piece in their system; and it shows.
The 9th is not one of my favorite Mahler symphonies. It is not that I dislike it, far from it; it's just that I prefer several others. The 9th is dark (as it should be given Mahler's life at the time)and it open a new more 20th century 'sound' for the composer (akin to his 10th). Having so many versions I can conclude that it is in the hands of the conductor to make it a worthy ride, otherwise, it can turn boring or, at the very least, "too long". And please note that it doesn't mean how fast is delivered!

I am not going to go into the details of Kubelik's miraculous conducting (other reviewers can do that better) but merely in how the whole felt. And the experience was extraordinary. It was listening to it afresh; the pacing was just about perfect... but the phrasing was spectacular. Mahlers talked.

I have not heard all symphonies of this "audite" cycle, but it is turning out to be even better than the DG and at the level of the best. Highly recommended.

One last thing. This might, of course, be personal but I find that recording the timpani 'closer', so as to make it really sound is a must for Mahler's music (e.g., ending of the 3rd symphony's 1st movement). His timpani writing always carries ethos/pathos and, in this case, I found it to be perfectly balanced forward. When backwards, it blurs the music for me. And there are so many recordings as such.