Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 / Mehta, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you get one recording of Mahler's spectacular Resurrection, get this one. I have 3 recordings of this piece, and this one is my favorite out of those 3. Single disc Mahler 2nds are very rare. But this one is better than alot of its double disc competitors. This is probably Mehta's finest Mahler album ever. I cannot say enough good things about this recording, but I will say as many as I can.

The first movement is very dramatic. Mehta opens with a very tense, brisk tempo. Even though he opens fairly brisk, Mehta never rushes, but never drags, clocking in at 21'03, a full 2 minutes slower then Klemperer who actually opens with a slower tempi. The timpani is very well-defined, however not overpowering, throughout the movement, as well as throughout the entire disc.

The Andante is played very well. The phrasing is wonderful. Mehta's tempi are pretty much the same as most others, perhaps a little faster in some spots.

The Scherzo starts out the best I have ever heard. Two crisp, crystal clear Timpani strikes. Then the next 2 are softer, then the next 2 are even softer, which gives it an amazing affect. My other recordings don't have as much contrast between the strikes. The tempi again is average. Brass section is great, as usual.

Then to the Urlicht. It is played slower then most, clocking in at 5'40. (I think the only slower on it is Berstein on DG.) It is undescribebly beautiful. Mehta's slower tempo just adds to the heartbreaking beauty. I like my slow movements as beautiful as possible and Mehta does not disappoint. Add to that the gorgeous singing of Ileana Contrubas and you have got a winning combonation.

To the massive finale. Now, here is where Mehta really triumphs. The tempi are perfect. Mehta builds the climaxes perfectly, never dragging. The brass play superbly! I heard some of the lower brass instruments in this movement that I didn't even hear before in my other recordings. Very impressive. When the chorus enters, just listen to the bass singers! Spectacular. The entire chorus sounds heaven-sent. Contrubas and Ludwig sing crystal clear and beautifully. The organ is heard very clearly. Again, it is not heard as well in my other recordings. In the coda, you can hear every instrument very well: Organ, brass section, and percussion(timpani, gong and bells). The combonation of perfect tempi, magnificent signing and ultra-vituostic playing make the finale one of the most moving pieces of music you will ever hear. Ya might want a tissue handy.

This recording has everything you could possibly ask for. Mehta's perfect tempi, great signing by Contrubas, Ludwig, and the Vienna Staatsopernchor. The Vienna Philharmoniker, particularly the brass, play just like the virtuostic ensemble that they are. And all this comes on a single, mid-price disc! Plain and simple: unbeatable. On top of all that, might I also add that this disc is 81 minutes long and has very good sound quality. This really does deserve to be in the Decca legends series, as the legendary on the cover is no hype. Go and get it ASAP.

It might get better than this, but I'm not really sure how. This Second is without question one of the most engaging, dynamic performances I've ever heard. If you're worried about Mehta's speedy tempo in the first movement, don't be; the music never sounds rushed, only tense and fiery and just smoldering with anger (except for the peace and celestial beauty of the second subject, which makes such an amazing contrast with the rest of the movement that it's hard to comprehend). The second movement is another brilliant contrast, a "Schubertian song": the VPO makes it tender and lyrical without ever becoming overwhelming. Then the scherzo (which starts with two brilliantly clear timpani strokes) is sinuous and mysterious and wonderfully macabre. Mehta and the VPO preserve the individual character of each of these movements while simultaneously managing to give them a unified feel, a sense that they belong to a coherent whole. As amazing as all of that is, however, it just can't compare to the final two movements. Ludwig has an amazingly full, rich contralto, turning the melancholy beauty of the Urlicht into something almost sacrosanct, and Cotrubas just soars above everything when she enters during the finale--appropriate for a movement that, in this recording, sounds as though the very gates of Heaven are opening and shining unimagined brilliance down onto Earth. I really can't summarize this recording effectively except to say that it's another one of those CDs that makes the music sound the way it was "supposed" to sound. It's just textbook-perfect. Add that to the fact that you get the *entire* symphony on one CD, and this becomes an unbeatable bargain. If it wasn't obvious already, I highly recommend this recording.

I have 2 more versions of this monstrous symphony(Klemperer-New Philarmonia, Walter-NYPO), but none of them can match the intensity, passion, emotion, and fire of this version by Mehta and VPO. I almost cried when I first heard it!
The quality of the CD is just a killer. YOU CAN HEAR EVERY INSTRUMENT WITH A LITTLE REVERB! That's especially true in the final movement. It's like being in the recording session yourself! The sound is huge. It's like that there was a wall of Marshall amps behind the orchestra & chorus! This CD should be played as loud as possible. It's the best to annoy your neighbors,or make them pray!
The first movement is the most violent, bitter, and angriest I have ever heard. The climaxes are just sheer-powerful.
The second movement is pretty much the same. The third movement opens with the best timpani I have ever heard. Those timpani strikes sound like you just woke up from a beautiful dream and went back to the cruel reality.
The fourth...Oh, the fourth movement! By now, it's the best fourth I've ever heard. Ludwig sounds like praying! And in my opinion this movement should sounds like a prayer.
Then the epical finale. The instrumental part is just monstrous. The off-stage band is amazingly awesome. You can hear every note they play. The voices part is the most powerful, passionate and emotional I've ever heard. When they sing the final word "tragen", they hold the last syllabus as long as possible. It really makes the climax more earth-shattering than ever before. That's really I want it to sound like, and other recordings didn't manage that well.
The price is a steal, so go and get it! And make sure to get some tissues when you hear it. Because I lent this recording to a girl, and she cried for 5 minutes just after the voices sang the last word!
And finally, if there was a 10-star setting, I'd give 11, and if it was 100-stars, I'd give 110!

Certainly this CD is a welcome addition to the Legends series, which in my opinion is one of the best series in classical music to come along. The transfers and remasterings are superb across the board and the performances are exceptional.

In this recording of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, we find one of the best orchestras in the world, the Vienna Philharmonic. Because of the forces and instrumentation used in this work, it was a difficult piece to record and give it full justice. It is my opinion that this is the first successful recording to do justice to the effects Mahler was trying to create. Big rich bass, wonderfully recorded strings, wonderful soloist, and a very controlled chorus.

Mehta here gives us perhaps his best performance as a conductor. It is well known that with him, you never know what you're going to get. This is one of those performances that you should not pass up thinking it might be bad. It is incredible. If perchance you must have digital, go with Sir Simon Rattle's recording on EMI.

Given the numerous symphonic interpretations available for the canon of Gustav Mahler, from Szell to Bernstein to Tilson-Thomas to Karajan (etc. etc.), the task of sorting through the myriad choices of composer and/or cycle to find the 'best' recording can be pocketbook-painful. Double or triple dipping does give one a broad perspective of the work, but for the budget shopper (be it time or money), finding that one 'definitive' interpretation is usually the paramount objective. Thankfully, Amazon's review-system often helps in curtailing hype, penetrating bias and directing the wary consumer as to alternative options on the selected work. Thus was I brought, by clicking and comparing, to this 1975 recording of Mahler's epic 2nd, the "Resurrection." The overwhelming positive reviews, along with the fact that Zubin Mehta executed the entire symphony at a swift 81 minutes, therein reducing any tendency for long, drawn-out pomposity (the bane of Mahler interpretation), prompted me to purchase yet another version of this elegant, mournful, angry and profoundly *cathartic* symphony, perhaps my favorite of the Austrian maestro's vast sound-canvas.

And this was not money spent in vain. Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic deliver an astounding performance of "Resurrection," one that resonates far beyond any other recording these particular ears have endured. The tone is set at the very beginning: dark, eruptive, with a rapidity that, initially, comes as a bit of a shock; yet also feels *right*, fully engaging the listener within the space of a few thundering bars. This is music that would plod and grumble in lesser hands; here it growls, it screams and howls, the anguish of a life in final decline: the Titan of the 1st, having struggled to culmination, now faces a foe that cannot be vanquished. From spring to winter, and then _beyond_: Mahler ambition and resultant art is staggering even now, more than a hundred years from its controversial inception.

Of course, the man who wrote this music would immediately beg to differ with my musings above, on the grounds of sheer presumption. During the period this symphony was conceived, Mahler began to experience displeasure at the limitations of 'programme,' or detailed explanation of the symphonic work. In seeking the exact meaning of the movements, in labeling and categorizing what should be experienced beyond the reduction of words, the *purity* of the music itself was debased. These are noble sentiments, and aesthetically admirable, but also rather limiting for the purpose of this review... so on with the interpretations, regardless! Mahler himself provided several outlines of this symphony, the last emerging _after_ he publicly disavowed programmes, and these both support and offer counterpoint to the central themes. The opening 'Todtenfeier,' a grim funeral march, is usually thought to depict the epic struggle of a mighty being grappling with life, and realizing the yawing mouth of death as reward for such suffering; in a different programme, however, Mahler stated more ambitious concerns:

"The [Titan hero] I bear to his grave, and whose life I reflect, from a higher vantage point...the question is asked: _What_ did you live for? _Why_ do you suffer? Is it only a vast, terrifying joke? -We have to answer these questions...to go on living...indeed, if we are only to go on dying! And...this answer I give in the last movement."

Mehta's version of 'Todtenfeier' is 21.03 minutes long. The Allegro tempi gives the march an appropriately wrenching momentum, which accentuates the mellow passages - even in the bliss of strings and horns, one can feel a storm hovering at bay, with lightning-bolts trashing through the murky roil. It sets contrast upon these achingly beautiful 'memory-fragments,' nostalgic yearning ever swallowed by the chaos-shroud of a future battle. After the final release of the first movement - the swiftness of the end perhaps describing the sudden collapse of our Titan - nostalgia dominates the second movement, a striking contrapuntal Waltz that, while gorgeous on the surface, contains ambiguous foreboding beneath...

The Scherzo, with its sunny central theme and shadowy intervening sections, seems to me a meld of the Funeral March and the 2nd Waltz, with the oblivion-shade infiltrating the reflections of yesteryear. In a letter to a correspondent, Mahler confessed that sections of the third movement were perhaps the most difficult of the entire symphony to compose, and at one time he "gave up and omitted" its climax. "Usually...I don't want to come to grips with [the difficulty and/or significance]... yet they continue to hold me up and finally force their way to expression. Now I see that it is the most indispensable, the most powerful part of the entire movement."

The fourth passage, "Urlict," was originally composed as a separate song, and Mahler incorporated it into the symphony at a rather late stage, realizing he needed a bridge between the third and last movements. I must say that, in the end, it works perfectly as a thematic interlude: the softness of the music, its short duration and, especially, the sorrowful vocal: "oh, rosebud red!" -seems to give voice to awakened epiphany - the nostalgia-cloud is burned away with the last-gasp declaration: "I refuse to be sent back! I am from God and shall return to God!" And then, at the end of these "purgatory-strings," the dissonant shriek of death itself makes itself violently known with the opening of the fifth. From here the pace slows as Mahler recapitulates his various motifs toward the "Aufersteh'n" choral, building, building, ever building... until reaching that breathtaking climax of voice and instrumentation:

"Rise again, yea, thou shalt rise again / My dust, after short rest! / Immortal Life! Immortal Life!.../ To bloom again art thou sown!"

The impact of this choral, after the seventy-five minute endurance test of grief and remembrance, denial and acceptance, utterly overwhelms the senses: a riveting catharsis!

This CD encapsulates the entire symphony, allowing for a smooth, uninterrupted listening experience. Audiophiles may gripe about the non-digital transfer, but for me, Mehta's rendition is the undisputable 2nd to own - and at ten dollars, a mind-boggling value.

Highest recommendation.

Though this is a re-release of one of Zubin Mehta's favorite works, this Mahler #2 recording has few peers. Mehta's intrinsic understanding of the architecture of this huge symphony is ever present, but so are his insightful homages to the simple folksongs Mahler incorporates in this journey toward redemption. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of course understand this score better than any other orchestra and with the intelligent and soulful singing of Christa Ludwig and Illeana Cotrubas every aspect of the tonal spectrum is lavishly perfect. Hold on to your hats and hearts and bask in this quintessential Mahler Resurrection!

The trick with Mahler, and it's a heck of trick, is the ability to negotiate all the emotional and musical twists and turns with aplomb. The problem with so many Mahler recordings is that they're uneven. Example: Think of Boulez's great outer movements in his recording of Mahler 7, then think of the perfunctory way he treats the second Nachtmusik. This 1975 recording is a rare exception to that rule. Mehta and the VPO nail Mahler 2 from the first bar to the last. Quite simply, this recording is indispensable.

I have heard the Mahler Symphony #2 many time in performance and on recordings. In my opinion, none equals this fantastic effort by Mehta. It is a revelation from beginning to end. My first experience with the piece was hearing Bruno Walter conduct the New York Philharmonic in a captivating performance long ago. That introduction to this apotheosis of Romantic music pales by comparison. There is a very good reason why this recording has never been out of print. It is simply the best.

No need to elaborate on the many excellent reviews that precede mine. This is among the best performances of this work ever recorded (if it is not the best; I believe it is). Reviewer Hsu below intimated that he almost cried upon first hearing this; I can tell you that after almost 30 years of listening to Mehta work his magic with this symphony, I still cry every time I listen to it.

Zubin Mehta was responsible for a number of excellent recordings for Decca/London during his tenure at Los Angeles. That this recording comes to us with the help of an even finer orchestra does nothing to lessen the Maestro's work here iin the States, though: his equally splendid Holst Planets is one of the most collectible vinyl records there are.

This CD represents really fantastic music-making at its greatest. Zubin Mehta displays the potential for greatness - he never realised the stature he could have attained. In this performance of emotional power and musical stature, he leads with certainty and decision. The VPO, as ever, respond magnificently. Their diction is perfect; phrasing is warm and textures plush. The sound quality, while perhaps not demonstration class, is adequate to uphold the other qualities on show here. In an amazing display of emotional and musical accumulation, this performance builds and builds to magisterial proportions. There are one or two caveats that need addressing en route, however.

Performance: 5/5
The Wiener Philharmoniker is everything one could hope, expect or wish for. Here, they reinforce their reputation as a world leader. The bass themes of the first movt's opening are delivered with a refinement, precision and commitment that make this a great performance. This provides a firm footing - the secure foundations - out of which the rest of the performance germinates. In this sense, the orchestra as well as the conductor, displays a clear sense of architecture. The latent power with which the opening is imbued is vindicated later by the immense reserves the orchestra has to call on. The homogeneity of the orchestral sound has a unique and exciting bite to it and, when necessary, the brasses cut through the sound with determination to deliver a house-filling aural spectrum of orchestral colour.

The vocalists also excel themselves - this is saying much considering one of them is none other than Christa Ludwig. Cotrubas sings very well and manages her demanding parts with conviction and decisiveness while Ludwig performs similarly, extolling that extra bit of quality. The choir are also fantastic. They provide the piece de résistance in a magnificent final movement, full of colour, charm, excitement and tension. Their initial pps are eloquently delivered and their sound benefits from a significant response from their bass section. From there, they build magnificently - along with the rest of the performance - if not one of the most amazing orchestral finales Mahler ever committed to paper.

Sound: 4/5
This is where the difficulties with this record begin (and end). Like the majority of records captured in the Sofiansaal of the Wiener Musikveerein, this record has a telling dryness to it. Not only that, but there is a lack of space into which the sound is permitted to expand. Considering these caveats, this production could have become an acoustic lemon. Fortunately, the engineers salvaged the issue very well. Though it lacks expansiveness, there is no real feeling of congestion in the soundstage. This could be because the Decca engineers produced a fantastic stereo sound image. Listening to it with eyes shut the impression of being at the event arises very clearly - it feels like you could point to the positions that the instrumentalists have assumed on stage. Of course, the less than realistic nature of the sound as a whole dispels the impression though a very realistic weight of sound can be reproduced from this record.

Interpretation: 5/5
The musical argument that Mehta propounds here is very cogent and the result is immense satisfaction. On subsequent re-listenings, it feels like he is certain of his final aim in this performance from the very first bar. Mehta produces a final blaze of glory the likes of which should be heard to be appreciated. Of course, Mehta being exuberant and lively, it never really feels like he's holding anything back for the crucial moments of the piece. This is perhaps where the orchestra have successfully tempered the reading, somewhat - it is they who have retained their last reserves for the finale. In all, along with choir, soloists and orchestra, Mehta is the final cog in a machine that delivers a wonderful performance.

If you can deal with the less than perfect sound, you should really like this performance. Even if you are an audiophile, if you like good music making and art then this has merits in spades to make up for its sound. One shouldn't get hung up on the issue of this records sound - though it's not perfect it is better than acceptable. Who could care about sound quality, anyway, when such a magnificent performance builds and builds to deliver an experience beyond expectation?