Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (Prepared by D. Cooke)

Gustav Mahler (Composer), Eliahu Inbal (Conductor), Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Eliahu Inbal
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (August 30, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Denon Records
• ASIN: B0000034SK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,317 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best of the Mahler 10 interpretations, December 12, 2003

By 

Jim Rickman (Sudbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (Prepared by D. Cooke) (Audio CD)

By far, the most outstanding interpretation of Deryck Cooke's realization (his 2nd version) of Mahler's Symphony No. 10. I've listened to both of the Rattle recordings and the ones by Chailly and Slatkin, but this one by Eliahu Inbal is the one that satisfies me the most (and it's also the one I discovered after all those others). Inbal does take it faster than the others, especially in the 5th movement, but I find this works far better than the slow almost still-life efforts of the rest. Rattle in his much praised Berlin recording, tries to wrench from the score all the emotion he can, but it comes off has too affected for me, whereas Inbal's recording (done in 1992) has a singing quality that is just as passionate and emotional. Inbal's way of bringing out the passion of the last Almshi cry near the end of the 5th movement is, for me, the most heart-wrenching of all the interpretations. This should be the first choice for every Mahlerian.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inbal or Rattle?, February 21, 2010

By 

Ralph Moore "Ralph operaphile" (Bishop's Stortford, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (Prepared by D. Cooke) (Audio CD)

I know that there are other recommendable recordings out there, but comparison of these two makes sense to me for several reasons, practical and aesthetic: one, I own them both; two, they are both excellent; three, they represent contrasting, very diffferent but equally successful interpretative stances.

Rattle's version has attracted far more attention and many more reviews, for obvious reasons, but don't let that, in combination with the fact that his Mahler cycle as a whole might not be up there with the front runners, lead you to dismiss Inbal. For some reason, Inbal and his Frankfurt orchestra really came into their own for this one.

Broadly speaking, Rattle's view of this wonderful symphony, in the equally admirable completion (OK - "performing version") by Deryck Cooke, is typical of his strengths (reflected in his latest Brahms symphony cycle) and weaknesses (an ennervated and static Requiem by the same composer) as a conductor. Occasionally, he relies too heavily on too ponderous an approach which can cause his interpretation to plough into the sand and choke. Here, although he favours much broader tempi and phrasing than Inbal, I think he gets away with it: this is a grand, monumental 10th, far more tragic and reflective than Inbal's nervier, more propulsive and hopeful account. Thus, some find Rattle nerveless and cold, others find a stately beauty in his more reserved approach.

Both versions enjoy superb sound. Rattle's is spliced from two live performances and is slightly rounder and duller - or perhaps less edgy? - than Inbal's brighter studio recording; either way, the ambience provided complements each conductor's artistic choices. Inbal's woodwind is more pungent but there is more sheen on the Berlin strings - which could be the result of both their innate orchestral sound and the engineering. Both orchestras play superbly, although some find an echo of too much smoothness in the BPO's strings - a remnant of the Karajan era, they complain.

Movement by movement, the same generalisations are confirmed in the details: the opening is more resigned and yet more tender, too, under Rattle; more violent and heroic under Inbal, especially in the shattering, climactic, nine-note dissonance and the A-flat minor chorale. Both Scherzos are weightier and more refined under Rattle; more rustic, unbuttoned and even vulgar under Inbal, especially in the Ländler sections. I love the way Inbal's brass screams and howls in the second Scherzo; Rattle is almost too civilised by comparison. In the tiny, central "Purgatorio" movement, Rattle brings darker sonorities and colouring, Inbal is sharper.

The interpretation of the vast final movement could be a clincher for some listeners: the otherwordly beauty of the flute's theme leading into the concluding cantabile section is exquisitely played by Rattle and the BPO; his broader tempo and their singing strings impart a profound melancholy which offers less of a sense of resignation and consolation than Inbal's vibrancy. Both make much of the bitterly ironic quotations from "Das Lied von der Erde". One crucial detail stands out for me: I much prefer the way in which Inbal secures a real swooping, Mahlerian portamento from the Frankfurt strings on that last leaping sixth skywards; Rattle's is almost diffident in its polite timidity.

In the last analysis, I prefer Inbal's heart-wrenching humanity to Rattle's bleaker, more detached stateliness, but make no mistake: both are deeply moving, wholly recommendable recordings.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly great end to a marvellous Mahler cycle, December 21, 2005

By 

Pater Ecstaticus (Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (Prepared by D. Cooke) (Audio CD)

What is it exactly that makes this rendition of Mahler's Tenth Symphony so wonderful? For me, it must be the feeling that this Mahler 10 really sounds as if springing forth directly from a living, breathing voice, which is the orchestra itself, really 'singing' Mahler's great Song of Despair and Hope. Though with a lot less nervous energy than for excample Sir Simon Rattle in his marvellous, tightly controlled, hypercharged, already 'classic' Mahler 10 with the Berlin Philharmonic on EMI. Rather different, this Rattle, and maybe even greater(?). Rattle's Berlin Mahler 10 does have the most TERRIFYING A-flat minor chorale (just before the famous nine-tone chord-outburst) I have ever experienced, and I find it most unsettling to listen to every time I hear it. I must really brace myself emotionally for its horror every time.
Less so with Inbal. He seems to take a little more distance to the implied emotions, as if softening them a little (with humor? Or because of not wanting to overdo it and take a more 'natural' or 'direct' approach to the score, not reading too much into it?). Or maybe the emotions are present here as forcefully and as deeply felt, but not as 'raw' as with Sir Simon Rattle. Anyhow, a great recording it stays nonetheless!
Inbal also is not afraid to take nice legato lines (Mahler's Tenth maybe never sounded so 'whole' or 'aus einem Guss') and to do the slides that Mahler seems to ask for, especially effective in the epilogue of the Adagio and in the great glissando leap of a minor thirteenth in the Finale. I do not know the score, nor can I read music, but it all does sound 100%, convincingly Mahlerian.
Both of the scherzi here often both sound more jaunty maybe (humor again?), and not so biting as in Rattle, which is totally convincing withing inbal's (very consistent and therefore also very rewarding) take on Mahler. The same with the 'Purgatorio' middle movement. But everywhere Inbal's control sounds tight but free, and therefore very natural. Or maybe this feeling of 'naturalness' comes from the impression that the music is allowed to breath freely everywhere in this recording. Well, whatever ... This remains a rather succesful (understatement!) Mahler 10 in one of the best Mahler cycles available - on all accounts.