Mahler: Symphony No. 4 [Hybrid SACD] [Hybrid SACD - DSD]

Gustav Mahler (Composer), Michael Tilson Thomas (Conductor), San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Laura Claycomb (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Laura Claycomb
• Orchestra: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (March 2, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
• Label: Delos Records
• ASIN: B0001JXP2K
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #752,225 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Symphony No. 4 in G major: I. Bedächtig. Nicht eilen. Rechtgemächlich

2. Symphony No. 4 in G major: II. In gemächlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast

3. Symphony No. 4 in G major: III. Ruhevoll (Poco adagio)

4. Symphony No. 4 in G major: IV. Sehr behaglich

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SFS-MTT Mahler 4: real, brilliantly paced,shadows/lights, March 13, 2004

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Dan Fee "music fan aka drdanfee" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 4 [Hybrid SACD] (Audio CD)

Although the Mahler 4 Symphony is argued to be the most classically balanced among his symphonies, it is still not easy to get the piece just right. First off, you have to find some flexible musical balance in your interpretive attitudes between the innocent to whom all is fresh, and the knowing one who is weary of the tired world and its perpetual failures. Instrumentally, although the orchestra required is consistent with the standardized classical band inherited from prior western composers, you face the challenge of balancing the polyphony of lines and cross-rhythms, dressed in almost folk-country, scintillating instrumental colors, with the uncanny wisdoms of the harmony that sinks entirely deep roots into both classical and late Romantic-era streams of forward motion and narrative. Finally, you have to achieve a unified sense of all this musical activity, at last culminating in that ultimate curiosity: a brief orchestral lieder to conclude all that has gone before in the symphony.

The ongoing Mahler symphony cycle by MTT and the San Francisco Symphony has gotten deservedly good press. The superaudio discs have incredibly vivid multichannel sound, recreating the venue that is Davies Hall. You are right there, if you remember the sound of the hall. Taped during live concerts, the performances have managed to combine quite a bit of alive and spontaneous music-making with the searching drama and angst that Mahler seems to have built into his harmony and expressive argument.

One might even assert that this current Mahler 4 is one of the higher, better peaks in the collection so far. The audience noises which have very occasionally marred previous recordings .... a brash cough or rustle, say, in the far right back corner of Davies Hall ... seem to be completely absent from this recording. While the original soloist as scheduled was supposed to be the incredible Christine Schafer, when she begged off, Ms. Claycomb was engaged to replace her. A pirated radio broadcast recording of Ms. Schafer with Rattle and the Berlin confirms that Ms. Schafer would have been perfectly cast. The Claycomb voice is pretty right for the lied, too. Only some broadened, operatic enthusiasm spills over at times in her upper notes, working against the genuine intimacy of the lieder-like spells she is otherwise casting upon the listener. She sings true and in tune. She phrases, without lapsing into cuteness. (Mahler directs the soprano to sing the song without parody.) She lets her voice move and float, rather exquisitely on the chiming accompaniments as the last notes of the last movement wind down into silence.

All in all, I find I am playing this new recording quite a bit, over and over. My top choice, Jascha Horenstein and the London Philhamonic with soprano Margaret Price, is out of print again. It has adequate sound, but nothing like the crystal clear presence of this superaudio multichannel extravaganza. Of course, I can always hope that somebody who actually cares about the Horenstein performance will see it gets remastered into SACD, maybe even multichannel. But I think this MTT/SFS disc will always hold a strong place on the Mahler 4 shelf. It belongs in good company, right next to such luminous versions as Klemperer/Schwarzkopf, Horenstein/Price, and Maazel/Battle.

Five stars, then, and highly recommended, especially if you can relish how the multichannel mix transforms your home theater area into Davies Symphony Hall on Van Ness Avenue.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the Best in MTT's Luminous Ongoing Mahler Cycle, July 18, 2004

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Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 4 [Hybrid SACD] (Audio CD)

The Michael Tilson Thomas is a world class musician, that he understands Gustav Mahler's intensely personal music (having come from the tutelage of Leonard Bernstein, the conductor most responsible for bringing Mahler to the attention of the concert hall), and that the concept of creating Hybrid recordings from live performances in the Davies Hall home of his San Francisco Symphony are lush recordings - all of these are given. It is bound to happen that all releases of Mahler's ten symphonies (nine and a half, some would say) are not equally as good, and that is the case for this very acceptable Fourth Symphony. While there are many beautiful moments in MTT's reading, the overall effect is needlessly episodic. Much of this is due to the strangely overindulgent manipulation of tempi and phrases. The orchestra sound is beautiful if a bit thin in the upper strings. The first desk playing in the solo sections is excellent. And though the choice of Laura Claycomb for the final movement is not an entirely successful one, it is adequate.

There is an inherent tendency for conductors to take liberties with Mahler's at times poetically vague intentions for tempi. And it is here that MTT falls into the somewhat self-imposed decisions as to what Mahler wanted: ritards are stretched, diminuendoes literally disappear, and climaxes are rushed to near intolerable speed. On the positive side, when in the concert hall hearing MTT conduct Mahler live, these personal nuances and ad libs work, and Mahler himself would probably have approved of this type of meandering over minutiae. If this work were simply mood music without an underlying symphonic structure, then MTT's approach would be the preferable one. And therein lies the problem: all of this personal indulgence ultimately detracts form the overall scheme of the symphonic statement. In all, a beautiful excursion in Mahleria - just not up to the caliber of his other recordings in this very superb cycle. The next release will be the Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" with Isabel Bayrakdarian and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as soloists and THAT promises to be magnificent! Meanwhile, this recording is well worth adding to your Mahler collection. Having the entire cycle of Mahler symphonies as prepared and conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas is a must!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Mahler 4 in SACD format, April 26, 2004

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Alexander Leach (Shipley, West Yorkshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 4 [Hybrid SACD] (Audio CD)

This is an superbly played and conducted Mahler Fourth, and perhaps the best-recorded of all. Tilson Thomas' interpretation is entirely idiomatic and his orchestra support him down to the last player.

The slow Ruhevoll movement is actually the slowest ever recorded, but never drags - but perhaps the oboe solo near the start could have been phrased more poignantly, as in Maazel's VPO recording on Sony or Chailly's Decca CD, both favourites of mine which I recommend. But that is only a slight quibble: the slow movement overall is sublimely shaped with wonderfully sensitive playing throughout.

I have listened to this SACD through a fairly high-end surround sound system - and it sounds marvellous: wonderful clarity and warmth, with a tangible depth to the soundstage. Along with Fischer's Budapest Dvorak 8 & 9, this is one of the best SACDs I have heard.

Indeed the only thing which prevents it being nigh-on perfect is perhaps the slightly close balance of the soloist in the finale, but again that is a very minor point. Buy this hybrid SACD with confidence.