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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sensitive account that pays attention to details,
By ScopeGuru (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor (Audio CD)
This is one of the best recordings of Mahler's 3rd among some 30 renditions sitting on my shelf. Salonen pays great attention to details that are commonly missed, and the transition from one musical idea to another are skillfully controlled and achieved with great insights. This is particularly so in the first three movements. The LAPO is an incredibly well balanced ensemble under Salonen's baton, as exemplified by the very fine first movement which in many cases falls victim to over emphasis on the brass section. Anna Larsson is a wonderful choice for contralto. Her voice is at the same time solid with conviction yet gentle and angelic, perfectly suited for the symphony. The LAPO gives one of the best performances I have heard since the great Eroica Symphony under Giulini. The tempi in the Finale are naturally paced. Salonen handles the numerous rubatos with great care, and the musical dichotomies blend into one another almost imperceptibly. I am thankful that Salonen does not opt for the notorious accelaration at the final timpani strokes, which to these ears never fails to destroy the entire musical experience so painstakingly shaped to epical proportion by Mahler. In a way, the performance lacks the great sense of awe so magically captured by Horenstein, or the sheer excitement infused by Bernstein (SONY), but Salonen captures a rare quality about this symphony of which Mahler was proud and anxious to tell his friends - this is a music about the world and about nature which the composer created with all available musical means. This performance is a rare artistic achievement. The recording sound is also excellent. This is without a doubt one of the best recordings with which to introduce someone to the gargantuan musical architecture that is asthetically pure Mahler, and a must-have for any serious Mahlerite.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Can hold its own with the best (if it isn't the best),
By MartinP "MartinP" (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor (Audio CD)
By any standards, this is an uncommonly beautiful and deeply satisfying account of this difficult, potentially disjointed piece. Several factors contribute to this. A notable one is Salonen's refusal to linger over passages that betray their limited staying power under the baton of more indulgent conductors. Thus, the post horn serenade in the third movement for once doesn't outstay its welcome. The bizarre juggernaut of the first movement is also kept moving along at an energetic marching tempo, its paragraphs joined by clearly articulated drum solo's instead of the usual vague rumblings that made you suspect the composer simply didn't know how to get from A to B. The final pages of this movement are indeed 'drängend', as Mahler requests, and to spectacular effect! In the second and third movement Salonen may at times be a bit too flexible with his tempi, inserting a few big ritenuto's where none are asked for, or defying the ones Mahler wants, playing them a bar later or earlier or not at all. Instances of this are to be found in the second movement especially. Nevertheless the fairy tale atmosphere of these pieces is realised to perfection. The post horn sounds duly distant, and the enlarged final ff return of its theme in the horns is magical, replete with rippling harps and quivering strings, truly otherworldly!The Zarathustra song may be a bit too brisk for some, but it works nevertheless - even though Anna Larssons's (beautiful) singing is not at all 'durchaus leise'. The fifth movement is fresh, lightweight and folksy as it should be (the boy choir may be a bit polished or even timid to some tastes, but to me seems far preferable to Bernstein's bellowing NY street gang on DG). And the adagio really leaves almost nothing to be desired: it unfolds with all the unhurried majesty it requires and in this even more than in other movements one is stunned at the sublime playing of the LA Orchestra. The combination of precision with beauty of tone and occasional individual touches of phrasing and expression is indeed breathtaking! There is an unfortunate and unnecessary letdown right at the end, though. I'm at a loss to understand what prompted the folly of reinforcing the final five timpani strokes with loud thwacks on the bass drum. This peculiar retouching of Mahler's score seems out of character with this conductor, and the cheaply sensational effect it achieves certainly doesn't match the composer's demand for a 'noble, saturated tone, not brute force'. Salonen demonstrates that he DOES know what Mahler meant even in the final chord, which is not extremely loud, but notated as a mix of f and ff levels, and duly rendered that way. To top it all off, the recorded sound is very pleasing indeed. It is not extremely detailed, but has the atmosphere of a real-life concert, with woodwinds somewhat recessed, lower dynamic levels up to mf or even f sounding fairly mild, but with louder passages opening up impressively. In this, it is similar to the Inbal recording on Denon, though it sounds less distant and miniaturised than that. Incidentally, it also shares with that recording (and very few others) a clearly articulated, realistic sounding bass drum. All bass lines are marvellously sonorous for that matter, and a further help to textural clarity is the left-right division of first and second violins (which is what Mahler would have expected!). On the whole, this is a very strong contender in a field without clear first choices. I long cherished the Haitink version from Berlin, but on recent rehearing it struck me as rather unvaried and severe (and I was surprised to note several wrong entries). Yet, I will keep listening to it for Jard van Nes's singing alone - her astounding rendering of the fourth movement has never been equalled by another singer. Bernstein on DG offers what is probably the best version ever of the first movement, but the rest is crude and uniformly loud, making it the most disappointing issue in his last Mahler-cycle. Inbal is quite good, though his orchestra is not up to the standards set by others. Older recordings tend to sacrifice too much of the work to inadequate recording technique - and this is a hifi symphony if ever there was one! I am curious about the recent Boulez, and am eagerly looking forward to Chailly's Concertgebouw recording, due to be issued soon by Decca. Until then, I will be listening to Salonen a lot!
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing performance,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor (Audio CD)
I own four recordings of this symphony, all of which are very good. But this one is by far the best. The playing is fabulous, both technically and emotionally. LA's horn section is the most virtuostic I've heard, and Salonen really brings them out. The rest of the brass section is just as impressive, with a euphoric tamber and great power. The strings and winds blend beautifully, creating one of the best Mahler sounds there is. Anna Larsson also has the ideal tone for Mahler. Her singing is absolutely stunning. Salonen has given us the only recording of this symphony anyone will ever need. After hearing this version, all others pale in comparison.
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