Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor - Resurrection [Hybrid SACD - DSD, Import]

Gustav Mahler (Composer), Ivan Fischer (Conductor), Budapest Festival Orchestra (Orchestra), Lisa Milne (Performer), Birgit Remmert (Performer), Hungarian Radio Choir (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Lisa Milne, Birgit Remmert, Hungarian Radio Choir
• Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra
• Conductor: Ivan Fischer
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (October 10, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD, Import
• Label: Channel Classics Nl
• ASIN: B000GPIBOG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,441 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mahler's Universe Realized, December 7, 2006

By 

Lawrence A. Schenbeck (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor - Resurrection (Audio CD)

I am not a blind-eyed, totally rabid fan of Ivan Fischer's work. Loved his Bartok series, hated his recent Tchaikovsky Fourth. That said, I concur with the other positive reviews here. This Mahler Second is enormously effective, heartfelt because it's never over-the-top. You catch the subtle things, the ironies, the humor, the innocence of the folk poetry, and much more. And the final movement really does become APOCALYPTIC. It's the most terrifying depiction of the Last Trump, etc., etc., ever composed, and (with this recording) ever put on disc. This is partly the nature of the Super Audio CD recording process, with its unbelievably wide dynamic range and these engineers' ability to capture, as someone said, the big and little tam-tams, the church bells, all the phenomenal detail Mahler builds into it.

Which is not to emphasize technical matters over musical ones. Fischer and his forces are unfailingly musical and expressive -- the briefest instrumental solos are handled with aplomb and real character, the tuttis are stunning. It's all shaped by a man who knows how to make Mahler's universe palpable for 21st-century audiences.

Get this, and go get yourself an SACD player so you can hear every last bit of it. (Although I suspect that even the Redbook CD version captures what's essential.)

49 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where's the Fire?, January 22, 2007

By 

Eric J. Matluck (Hackettstown, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor - Resurrection (Audio CD)

This is a dissenting opinion, a review of a performance that was not to my taste. I'm not going to bash it because I don't think it's a bad or actively offensive performance of Mahler's work, but I do find it lacking in too many of the elements that to me are essential to a satisfying interpretation of this music.

When I first discovered Mahler's symphonies, at the time I was in college, they were through the performances by Bernard Haitink, which had been held in very high esteem in certain quarters but taken to task for being too "sane" in others. These interpretations were seen as the antithesis of Leonard Bernstein's overtly (or overly) emotive ones. I've never developed a stomach for Bernstein's Mahler, though it has many, many adherents. Given that, I expected that a more objective interpretation, which I'd read Ivan Fischer provides, would be to my liking. But I think his reading is far too low-keyed and underpowered to generate even the excitement that Haitink's could, not to mention Bernstein's. When I found myself longing for some of the throat-grabbing emotionalism that Lenny could bring, I knew something was amiss.

To me the difficulties began at the first bar. Rather than a stirring held chord, what I heard sounded weak. There was no fire, no sense of suspense, and the orchestra, as it would throughout the performance, sounded noticeably small. The second theme was quite beautifully played, lovely and radiant, but that loveliness and radiance seemed to inform most of the movement, and this, in my opinion, is not music that should sound pretty. The second movement, on the other hand, which presents one of Mahler's simplest and most beautiful melodies, seemed overinterpreted. The music never flowed but sounded micromanaged bar by bar. As I told a friend of mine, I had to rely on my memory of this music to follow what was being played. The scherzo struck me as dull, with none of the sinister or even ironic quality that seems so much a part of it. That's where my first listen ended. Then, out of curiosity and fairness, I gave it another spin. No better. The "Urlicht" was sung beautifully enough, but it didn't tug at my heart the way it has in other performances, and the finale seemed no more apocalyptic than a barbershop glee until the final pages that, for me, were ruined by overprominent percussion, turning the piece into a spectacle through which it lost any sense of spiritual transcendence.

Criticism is a tricky thing. Everybody has his or own life experiences that shape his or her taste, so what satisfies one will not necessarily satisfy another. This recording has garnered praise from many quarters, and I wish I could add to that praise, but I can't. Delicate, refined, and polite when it's not sounding vulgar and manipulative, this is not a performance I can endorse.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hat's Off - A Winner for the 21st Century, October 29, 2006

By 

Hannibal (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor - Resurrection (Audio CD)

This is an absolutely fabulous performance of Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony.....For those of you lucky enough to have heard this same conductor and orchestra in Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, you will find an equal poise and sensitivity here, beautiful and moving in extraordinary sound - such as one finds particularly in SACD recordings, and if the final movement doesn't lift you to the proverbial heavens, you'd better get your ears checked!

Let me add that Fischer brings great drama to this magnificent work, and if hardly challenging early Bernstein for sturm und drang along the way, there are thrills a plenty, easily besting the overly-praised Rattle version for example. To be fair, Fischer's orchestra does not fully equal the Berlin Philharmonic in heft and ensemble, but the solo parts are even more exquisite here, and many details far more ravishing than you have ever heard before.

Even if you are still not the proud owner of an SACD player, listening to this in just plain stereo will give you such pleasure, you'll play it again and again, grateful for what you do hear now in anticipation of what you will hear later when SACD will reveal the full glory of this stupendous performance.