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Mahler: Symphony No. 8 - Zinman

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 - Zinman

RCA  88697579262, SICC-10088 (2 discs)

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical


Mahler: Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand"

Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich
David Zinman (conductor)

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Review by John Miller - April 18, 2010

In the summer of 1906, Mahler returned to his country retreat at Maiernigg in Southern Austria for his holiday, in fact an annual composition period. At first deeply frustrated by a lack of ideas, the words of a Latin hymn came to him - "Veni Creator Spiritus!" - an imperious demand for inspiration from the Holy Spirit. He began to set this to music immediately, and in eight weeks of feverish effort, he completed the bulk of the work.

Mahler's first encounter with the Veni Creator text was in Goethe's translation, where the poet considered the hymn to be a call to "the universal genius of the world". This philosophical view led Mahler next to set the second scene of Goethe's 'Faust' as part of the new symphony. Goethe's idealisation of the Eternal Feminine principle was deeply buried in Mahler's own psyche. As a child, he witnessed his father's repeated brutal drunken attacks on Mahler's mother, and this 'Mary-complex' later brought Mahler appalling anguish because of his inability to satisfactorily declare his love for his own wife, Alma.

Working from an initial four movement sketch of the Eighth Symphony, Mahler was finally able to bring together the religious creative essence of Part 1 (strikingly revealed by the dominating power of the organ) with 'Creation through Eroticism' from the Faust scene, which finally became Part 2. At the end of the work, the Chorus intones "Alles Vergängliche" (all is transitory) - except, as they next sing, the Eternal Feminine, which according to Goethe "draws us towards Heaven". Sacred and Profane are thus united. Mahler lived, of course, during a period in which much attention was given to sexuality as a fount of creativity. The presence of the children's choir is also symbolic for Mahler. They represent the potentiality of Youth, and, more personally, the traumatic loss of six brothers during his childhood (and of course later his own daughter's death). Significantly too, the Eighth Symphony was finally dedicated to Alma.

The first performance in Munich of the Eighth, with over a thousand performers, was an outstanding success for Mahler. Amidst a lengthy standing applause, Bruno Walter recalled that laying down his baton, he ascended the platform steps to move along the rows of the children's choirs, shaking hands with each of them.

Mahler declared to Sibelius that the Symphony "must be the World". It is therefore not surprising that there are many possible approaches to interpretation of his symphonies, giving ardent Mahlerians endless opportunities for picking at details in every performance . For the Eighth, however, we have one unequivocal criterion from the composer himself. "After the first theme there will be no adversary left in the hall, it must bowl every one over", he tells us.

David Zinman's Mahler series with his Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich is marked by his eschewing of various over-inflated and histrionic performing practises, relying on a deeply thought-through view of the cycle, and taking closer note of the myriad performance instructions which the composer left in his scores. This leaner, cleaner view has led to greater transparency and also less transfer of a conductor's personal foibles than in some other performances.

Zinman and Tilson-Thomas in his recent Eighth both start Part 1 at a brisk tempo, obeying Mahler's instruction of 'impetuoso', in great contrast to Chailly, who is ponderously slow. The first radiant chord of Eb Major sounded by the low winds, string basses and the Tonhalle's 4 manual Kleuker and Steinmeyer organ is indeed arresting, and the organ has an unmistakable presence throughout Part 1, its fiery upper work and very deep pedal notes adding tremendous emotional support and atmosphere to the choral singing. Zinman shapes the movement's many crescendos carefully, holding both momentum and tension grippingly, but keeping the loudest outburst to the final resounding pages, where he builds up thrilling surges of sound. Choral attack is exemplary, from both the mixed and children's choirs (the latter featuring the distinctive brightly raucous tone of Zinman's continental boy trebles, which cuts effectively through complex textures).

Zinman's team of soloists is somewhat more even than Tilson-Thomas's, acquitting themselves very well in vocal quality and expression. They overlap their parts neatly in the complex double-fugue textures of Part 1, clearly listening carefully to one another and forming a cohesive ensemble. Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey tends towards a Heldentenor in tone, although he has a slightly slow vibrato. He manages Part 1 without undue strain and offers a well-characterised Doctor Marianus in Part 2. Alfred Muff is a resonant Pater Profundus, much better in this role than Tilson-Thomas's gruff James Morris.

The sopranos have nicely differentiated tone colours in ensemble, and carry off their high B flats in Part 1 without strain, although the soprano who sings with the choir near the end of Part 2, soaring up to the high C, only just manages it: this part is better done in T-T's version, where the voice floats upwards mystically on a ravishing half-tone. Zinman's Gretchen, Juliana Banse, indulges in some expressive (and unmarked) slowing in her phrasing, apparently with the connivance of Zinman.

In Part 2, Zinman's control over Mahler's chamber-like orchestration is excellent, glowing with colour, and his light-hearted way with the scherzo-like interludes sounds perfectly Austrian, providing a nice contrast with the movement's heavier philosophical moments. Zinman's Tonhalle wind band distinguish themselves particularly well here, with pungent bassoons and very characterful clarinets and oboes. The final peroration in Zurich, amply boosted by the excellent organ, really does impress mightily, although it is brighter in tone, more wind and trumpet-led, than T-T's, where the heft of his phalanx of heavy brass lends more gravitas (needed to compensate for the weaker organ in San Francisco).

RCA's engineers, very familiar with the Tonehalle main concert hall by this stage in the cycle, provide a generally excellent set of balances in their near-impossible task of compressing an overwhelming live sonic experience into a domestic setting. In Part 1, the volume needs to be raised somewhat to bring forward what is a somewhat distant balance, featuring a lot of the hall's ample ambience. The sound stage is thus rather narrow, and back to front perspective a little hazy, although everything opens up satisfyingly when played at a good volume.

While this slightly distant balance is appropriate for containing the highly complex part-writing for the massive choruses in Part 1, the engineers seem to have changed the balance somewhat for Part 2, where much of the orchestral detail is chamber-like and delicate. The back-front perspective is much more sharply focused, with clear positioning of soloists and sections, and overall the sound is much more immediate and vivid. One small detail demonstrates the sophistication of the RCA capture; in the first few pages of Part 2, there are frequent touches on a cymbal, which hisses most realistically, each time with an audible decay. The cymbals also appear in the big climaxes, where their brilliance adds much to the excitement. The San Francisco cymbals (perhaps not Zildjans), however, are disappointing at these moments - more clang than hiss.

The impact of the added brass and the full organ in the final pages is superbly caught, with not a trace of distortion. My listening at this point is always conditioned by attempts to find a cartridge which would play the final bars of Solti's Decca recording on vinyl, without disastrous distortion (some is still there in the digital transfer). Only in direct comparison with Zinman's recording quality does T-T's superb San Francisco recording appear as the winner by a narrow margin; it has a wider sound stage for the chorus (in a semicircular balcony above the orchestra) and the greater weight of his forces and transparent balance are telling. Zinman's Eighth, however, taken by itself, is nonetheless a very fine engineering achievement.

Considering its quite low price, this RCA 2-disc set is a bargain, musically and technically well worth acquiring, even if you have other versions. As recordings go, the Eighth is at last approaching a satisfactory proposition for listening at home. Still, there is no substitute for the collective experience of a good live performance. That is where you get "blown away", to quote Mahler himself.

Copyright © 2010 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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