Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphony No. 3

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is indeed a very powerful interpretation of Mahler's third symphony. Thus, I do not agree with the reservations that some of the other reviewers have. If compared with Abbado's earlier recording, made some twenty years ago, this is the one to buy. That earlier version is a very harmless mainstream interpretation, and Jessye Norman is certainly not the ideal soloist (too operatic, to say the least). From that earlier interpretation, you do not really get the idea of how revolutionary this work still is.

In this latter one, by contrast, Abbado has a complete grasp of the work as a whole, and Anna Larsson has the perfect dark voice for the fourth and fifth movements. The climaxes are very powerfully presented; they are raw, breathtaking, and captured by the recording with a tremendous presence. But the music is always stunningly well played by the BPO. Finally, add the sense of an occasion you get from a live performance and this is nothing but a very memorable disc.

Moreover, a very important detail that Abbado observes is the solo oboe glissandi in the fourth movement that Mahler marked as "hinaufziehen (Wie ein Naturlaut)". Most conductors ignore this instruction, but on this CD it comes off very well (compare with Rattle's interpretation, and Gielen's).

In short: if you want to get a recording of this work which presents Mahler's third symphony as raw and revolutionary as it should be (and once was), this is a disc to consider.

There's no arguing over taste, but it's frustrating when reviewers totally misrepresent the facts. Contrary to the one-star review above, Abbado's live Mahler Third is in excellent sound, there is no artificial reverb added by DG engineers, no maskiing of detail; the orchestra is far from sounding bored, and the conductor is in top form. This reading is a major addiiton to the current catalog, although I wouldn't want to be without Abbado's previous Third from 1982 with the Vienna Phil., one of the highlights of his studio cycle. It's quite unprecedented for Europe's two premiere orchestras to record such a massive work with the same conductor, but Abbado enjoys total mastery in this score.

Now that we've got all that straight, I can only add to the chorus of praise for this astonishing recording. Abbado had become a great condcutor by the time he retired from the Berlin Phil. in 2002, and although the CD catalog is full of outstanding Mahler Thirds, there is some claim to be made that this one exceeds every predecessor in orchestral virtuosity, depth of interpretation, and sheer excitement. It belongs in the Mahler pantheon along with Abbado's incomparable CD of Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Sym. 6, 7, and 9, all with the magnificent Berlin PHil.

Sometimes I can shrug off bad reviews of good performances, but it's maddening when a great artist is giving his all and a listener sneers. Five stars without reservation.

This live performance dates from 1999 and preserves for us a visit of the Berlin Phil under Abbado to London. They did not bring their own chorus with them, and the choirs taking part are the LSO Chorus and the CBSO Youth Chorus. The contralto soloist in the 4th and 5th movements is Anna Larsson, and we are also told the names of the violinist and posthorn player who are given certain prominent parts. The first disc is given over to the multi-part first movement only, with the remaining hour or so of music on the second. Division into tracks is sensibly aligned with the rehearsal-breaks in the composer's score, and there is a final track consisting of applause lasting three minutes and 20 seconds. Mahler himself was at pains to stress the non-traditional elements that the score incorporates, and it occurred to me to wonder whether he thought of extending this spirit of inclusiveness to take in audience clapping as an integral part of the composition.

I would call the performance excellent without reservation. The great and unique Mahler sound is presented in all its splendour by the orchestra. The two choruses perform admirably in the very different roles assigned to them, and Anna Larsson is completely superb, beautiful in tone and soulful in expression. Tempi throughout are broad and unhurried, which is how I like them, and the great exalted conclusion is magnificent, well deserving the rapturous reception it got from the London audience. The recording suits me very well too, but you will certainly have to use a high volume-setting or some of the distant pianissimo effects will be verging on inaudible. This gives me no problems in a sitting-room of very average size while my neighbours are out. There is no trace of strain or distortion in the loudest sequences, and the drum reverberating through the floor thrilled me absolutely. Above all, this account captures for me the true tone and expression of Mahler as I imagine it, part transfigured, part anxious and even neurotic. This symphony is one of the most lyrical in the Mahler series, and Abbado has been rightly and successfully concerned to convey the sheer beauty of this score as well as intense personal expression that any of Mahler's music majors in.

Very properly where Mahler is concerned, there is a thoughtful liner note that tries to interpret the composer's own voluble comments on the `meaning' (if that is the right word) of the music. The eight sections of the first movement carry Mahler's own captions, some sort of image of summer `marching in' followed by what various agencies - flowers, animals, night, morning bells, love and a child - tell him. Even at this brief level of explanation angels double for the morning bells, and we have the distinguished expertise of Mr Donald Mitchell to help us integrate all this with what the composer had to say about it at greater length elsewhere. The marching has a sinister sound to it for one thing, and we could tell that from the music without any commentary. It is not my own usual idea of summer, and it is reinforced by military-sounding bugle-calls later in the work. Mr Mitchell takes us like Virgil through higher and higher circles of imagery. Evolution is apparently symbolised, by summer and by the innocent-sounding suggestions of summer, birds, animals and whatnot, at one level. However Nietzsche is here too in the fourth movement with his familiar aspiration to escape the bondage of meaning and the intellect, and in the fifth movement there is another setting from Mahler's beloved Knaben Wunderhorn, expressive of innocence obviously, whatever the further import of innocence might be in this context.

By 1999 Mr Mitchell had been at this kind of hermeneutics for a good 45 years to my certain recollection. What he doesn't try to do, no doubt wisely, is suggest what order the composer's thoughts came in - did the extraneous ideas suggest the music, was it the other way round, or is there no way of telling, as I myself suspect is the case? If one may say so without unintended disrespect, Mahler's chatter was of a familiar aesthete's kind in his time. There is no way that I can see of making anything completely coherent out of his statements, and Mr Mitchell has more sense than to try to. It is all more suggestive of a painting with different levels of images overlaid on one another, and I like to think that tact and discretion would debar any of us from asking such a Maler with naïve incomprehension `what it means'. Anyway, there is also an alternative liner note not much more than half the length in German. This I have not attempted to read from reasons of faintheartedness, but French-speaking listeners have the opportunity of reading Mr Mitchell's musings in their own tongue, presumably in an accurate and idiomatic translation.

At the end of the day, music is music. Any ideas and concepts it may be connected with do not have to be coherent, but the music itself does. I love Mahler, I felt a duty to struggle through the familiar process of wrestling with the background concepts that he himself expounded with such enthusiasm, but as usual I was happy to forget all that before long. This music coheres magnificently to my own ears, this performance coheres magnificently, the execution is superlative and the recording seems to me to do them all justice if you set your controls right. It is perhaps my own outright favourite among the Mahler symphonies, I have no good explanation for why it has been absent from my collection for so long, and whatever other fine versions may be available I would say with confidence that you ought not to feel you could go wrong with this one.

The sheer quality of the BPO orchestral playing makes this recording a very important addition to the catalogue, especially when rival versions from Bernstein, Salonen, Rattle and Litton offer nothing of the sort. Even Haitink with the BPO falls short of the super virtuoso performance Abbado gets from the same orchestra, and it is ironic that Abbado's only serious rival among modern recordings is himself, with the equally great Vienna Philharmonic.
Do get this recording, it won't be surpassed in the near future.

A few outstanding recordings of Mahler's 3rd symphony have been released in the past few years (e. g. Salonen's, Nagano's and Boulez's) but this exceptional recording from Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic may be the best of them all. Here he offers a vivid, relentless interpretation emphasizing the revolutionary qualities of Mahler's score that is light years removed from his excellent recording with the Vienna Philharmonic made back in the 1970's. His latest interpretation is substantially more complex, with more understanding of Mahler's intentions. Abbado leads the orchestra in a spellbinding performance noted for its brisk tempi (A notable exception is the swaggering military march at the onset of the 1st movement.), and intense, crisp playing from the orchestra, especially the brass and string sections. The brass and violin solos are among the most beautiful I have heard in a Mahler symphonic score. Alto Anna Larsson's singing is truly angelic, especially of the text from Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra. My only complaint is the quality of the recording from BBC and Deutsche Grammophon; it is not well balanced between the pianissimos and fortes - in plain English, between the quiet, tranquil passages and the fiery, bombastic passages - since I had to adjust the volume repeatedly on my CD player. However, inspite of this nuisance, I can still strongly recommend Abbado's latest interpretation as among the best I have heard of this symphony.

This Mahler 3 is a great performance in terms of conducting and playing, but as others have said the recording is not that great. Taken from a radio broadcast it seems from Royal Festival hall some of the range of the recording is limited. It is worth getting however because of the great performance and along with Haitink's Berlin Philharmonic recording, Bouleze/VPO and Abbado's earlier recording is among my favorites.

Greg

Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony is a difficult work to bring together, especially under live conditions. However, in the hands of the greatest Mahlerian of the second half of the 20th century and the best orchestra that has ever been (okay one of the best, sorry Amsterdam)it comes off beautifully. Claudio Abbado recorded all of Mahler's symphonies in the late 70s and early 80s, and some of these were great (the 7th comes to mind.) When he re-recorded the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 9th in the late 90s and early 2000s with the incredible Berlin Philharmonic, his place in the pantheon of great Mahler conductors became permanent. All of these are great, but the 3rd stands head and shoulders above the rest. Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall (home of the London Philharmonic) while on tour, this 3rd stands with Haitink's and Bernstein's versions from the 60s in terms of commitment and freshness. Everything here has a burnished, warm sound to it. Abbado has the "nature roaring" part down beautifully. The trombonist in the 1st movement, while not as rude as some prefer him to be, has a noble, majestic, "calling down from the mountains" feel. The tempi here are not terribly fast but never trenchant and plodding. I would call Abbado's speed for the first movement majestic without being sluggish. I think a certain element of majesty is necessary here. Everything that follows is absolutely magnificent, the Comodo Scherzando in particular being magical (very fine posthorn soloist) and the finale is just as beautiful as you could ask for it to be. The orchestra , especially the low brass, definitely show why they are one of the greatest bands in the world. The recorded sound is fine, maybe a little adjustment to keep the roof from blowing off when the full ensemble is going. For on the spot engineering, the BBC did a fine job. Very highly recommended.

Bravi tutti!

The interpretation is sensitive and well judged, and the orchestral playing in this live performance is full of both virtuosity and tonal beauty (as one might expect from the Berlin Phil). However, having offered up these praises, I nevertheless find that Abbado in the last analysis fails to quite convey both the raw dramatic power and visionary intensity that the Horenstein and Bernstein-Sony recordings do, each in their distinctive ways.
Furthermore, the sound, though of good bass extension and dynamic range, tends to drop out in the quiet passages.
If you do not have a recording of the Mahler 3rd, I would advise you to start with the aforementioned Bernstein because, in addition to the quality of the performance, it has valuable fillers consisting of fine performances of the Kindertotenlieder and three of the Ruckert songs (most other recordings of this piece do not offer anything else), it is mid-priced, and the Horenstein is no longer domestically available.

If you like your Mahler robust and heavy, seething with Romanticism, but up to a point, then you should try this recording. The solo passages for the various instruments in the orchestra are virtuoustic and the tempi are meditative but do not drag. It's a tight, taut recording with a live precence, and edge and a bite to it. A worthy tribute to Abaddo's Berlin Philharmonic. For a 'heavier' recording try Bernstein's set with New York, for something lighter, more 'dancy' try Haitink with Amersterdam.

Well, as you can see, there's a lot of bickering back and forth. The obvious conclusion that one can make from all this bickering, is that there has to be a reason for it. So, I may as well jump into the fire and add my zwei groschen (two cents). Here goes:

This is a very fine performance in every conceivable way. Abbado conducts with a far greater sense of flow and purpose than he did on his earlier VPO recording (also DG). The Berlin Phil. play exceedingly well in their own style, which is more like an overgrown chamber orchestra than just an expanded philharmonic. As usual with them, the low brass sometimes underwhelm. But when everyone else in the orchestra executes what's written in front of them so superbly, who cares!?! On top of this, Anna Larsson is pretty much made for the part among today's crop of deep voiced mezzos. But there is one big shortcoming here: while Abbado's VPO Mahler 3rd was recorded too close and had a very exaggerated dynamic range (with soft playing falling off the radar screen altogether), this BPO one has a farily compressed dynamic range. If you want a Mahler 3rd that you can play for dinner music, this is it!

Well, there you have it in a nutshell. We all have to pick and choose our poisons from time to time. Frankly, there are worse things that one could do to the sound than just compressing the dynamics a bit. Just know that there is a "pirate" floating around out there in the Mahlerian cyberworld, where the dynamic is much more open - far less compressed. This performance sounds equally good on that opened up pirate. But if this isn't such a big issue for you, you might very well be satisfied by what DG offers us here. You've heard worse, and so have I.