Mahler: Symphony No. 5

Amazon.com Benjamin Zander follows his outstanding live recording of Mahler's 9th with an even more impressive version of the 5th, made in the studio and thus yielding even more lifelike sound and orchestral polish. The opening funeral march movement is especially notable for the outstanding trumpet soloist, neatly judged tempos, and natural-sounding rubato. Zander's pacing of the Scherzo follows Mahler's instructions--"not too fast"--obtaining a nice rhythmic lift from his players and allowing myriad orchestral details to come through. The famous Adagietto is taken at a flowing tempo, avoiding the leaden quality with which overly slow performances tend to stifle it. The huge finale, just a bit slower than most performances, sacrifices some excitement to clarity. The Philharmonia's horns and brass are outstanding, as are the strings, which phrase Mahler's lines with genuine affection. But the percussion, so important in Mahler, is a weak link. In sum, a fine performance in a crowded competitive field headed by Bernstein's extraordinary DG recording. What sets this apart, however, is Telarc's bonus disc--a 78-minute lecture-demonstration by Zander that serves as a terrific introduction to the work for novice Mahlerians, and will intrigue and educate even those who thought they knew this symphony inside out. --Dan Davis Review Given the right conductor and enough rehearsal time, the best of today's youth orchestras can match professional bands in virtuosity and outpoint them in freshness. At the Amsterdam Mahler Festival in 1995, for instance, arguably the most gripping concerts were given by the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester, despite heavyweight 'competition' from the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras as well as from the local Royal Concertgebouw. So hopes were high for something special from this public performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, given on tour in 1997 by the German high school students of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie under the veteran Rudolf Barshai, a superb viola player and orchestral trainer who recently produced a new (and by several accounts strikingly perceptive) performing version of Mahler's unfinished Tenth.On the whole, the hopes are fulfilled. Every section plays with edge-of-the-chair commitment and Barshai shows an unsurpassed command of the structure of this devilishly difficult piece, which Mahler went on 'perfecting' almost until he died. Note, for example, how the 'heavens opening' chorale in the rumbustious finale carries the extra punch (deliberately) denied it on its first appearance in the second movement a passage Mahler promptly followed up with an fff tam-tam (here overwhelming) signalling that the time for joy had not yet come. Reluctantly nit-picking, there are one or two minor imprecisions and intonation problems, inevitable in a performance caught on the wing like this. The recorded sound is not ideally transparent and coughers occasionally disturb. But if you do not add this CD to your collection you will miss a rare treat.Letting the side down, as all too often these days, is an awful accompanying booklet. It is replete with misspellings (Rudolf is given as 'Rudolph' on the cover), the dates of Mahler's birth and death are wrong and the venue of the recording is given as both Berlin (correct) and Cologne. What a relief to turn to the exemplary documentation accompanying the Telarc recording by the Philharmonia under the Boston-based scholar, teacher and conductor Benjamin Zander. This includes a free extra disc on which Zander gives a talk on the symphony which is so full of insight that almost anyone will learn something from it. Full marks for honesty, too. Not every maestro would admit to not knowing until after his recording about long well-publicized evidence of Mahler's own rehearsal timings.As for the performance itself, there is much to enjoy; well-chosen tempos, super-sensitive strings (albeit sounding rather underpowered above mezzo-forte, perhaps a recording problem), horns baying away in the grand Philharmonia (Brain, Civil) tradition. But the percussion does not always 'tell' as it should and Zander fails to clinch the last-movement argument as decisively as Barshai (or, indeed, as Bernstein, Boulez and Gatti do in the comparisons listed above). For rather different reasons, try to hear both these valuable Laurel and Telarc productions. But for proof that once in a while professionals even in the studio can play with at least as much intensity and enthusiasm as youngsters, listen to the riveting performance by the Royal Philharmonic under Gatti (for which, I should admit, I wrote the notes). Jonathan Carr -- From International Record Review - subscribe now