When this recording was first released in 1984 a lot
of publicity was generated by the choice of venue for the sessions.
EMI had just begun working with Ricardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra
in their, then new, long-term partnership, but with time running out
before the sessions for their first release they had despaired of finding
a studio to use instead of The Old Met or The Academy both of which
were unsuitable. Then a chance conversation with a gardener at Fairmount
Park just outside the city by engineer Peter Dix led them to an indoor
baseball court in one of the wings of the park’s Memorial Hall that,
after some imported acoustic panels had been pressed into service, proved
ideal for recording. The sound of this great orchestra here comes across
with a bloom and depth that never gets in the way of important details
that themselves emerge in an almost ideal perspective. In fact it is
the playing of the orchestra that most impresses on first hearing. There
is no part of this wonderful score that they are not on top of. The
pleasure of hearing what was then and still is one of the greatest orchestras
in the world playing this music is as good a reason for buying this
recording as any over and above what qualities Muti might bring.
Of course Ricardo Muti is not known as a Mahler interpreter.
You could say that with this recording of the First Symphony he was
just a visitor to the Mahler canon. Indeed I’m not aware he has ever
performed any other Mahler symphonies since this recording. But there
is no need for that to put us off giving it a fair hearing. Of all the
works in the Mahler canon this is the one that is most likely to yield
up fine results from such a visitor. Taken in isolation from the works
to come, the First can still be viewed a great big nineteenth century
romantic symphony with lots of big tunes and big moments and this is
generally how Muti treats it. No special insights, therefore, no impressions
of this as first chapter in a musical biography, just superb playing
and faultless execution in near-ideal sound. The distant atmospherics
of the first movement’s introduction are floated beautifully before
us, for example. It is a rather still landscape, however. Not one that
shimmers as evocatively as it can. A landscape without figures, you
might say. I also feel that once the main material of the exposition
gets underway the introduction appears much more detached from it than
usual. A sign of Muti’s Mahlerian inexperience, perhaps. Later on the
development has superb poise but note the careful portamenti
on the cellos. These are correct rather than idiomatic: the score being
obeyed rather than read and understood. Listen to Horenstein recorded
in Vienna in the 1950s on Vox (CDX2 5508) for the real Mahler experience
here though the contrast in sound could not be greater. The great orchestral
outburst prior to the recapitulation with horns whooping like bridling
stallions is built to and delivered with great sense of power in reserve
at first then a real feeling of release. This is the first time in the
recording that you have the chance to hear the fine acoustic of Memorial
Hall playing its part and I’m sure it will impress you as it did me.
In the second movement the superb lower string articulation is a good
example of the stunning orchestral playing to be heard throughout the
performance. Perhaps Muti does just see this movement as only a jolly
set of dances, though. In many ways this is what it is, but others can
find far deeper resonance, especially in the sickly trio. In the hands
of a Kubelik or a Horenstein or a Bernstein it really pricks at the
imagination more where Muti is a little too cultured and refined here
to get beneath the skin. Is he perhaps still in the first flush of excitement
at standing before such players and wants to show them to their best
advantage?
The third movement begins very subdued and veiled.
The lack of any real character and grotesque in the solo double
bass opening again suggests to me that Muti is really skating the surface
of this music, again just obeying the score rather than understanding
and probing it. As the movement progresses that dapper refinement I
noticed in the second movement is still to the fore. In a movement that
is one of Mahler’s most early distinctive creations this is certainly
a loss. One wonders how these sessions would have emerged if they had
been in the hands of Kubelik or Barbirolli. However, again I cannot
but praise the beautiful playing of the orchestra and the excellent
balance of the sound and likewise all through the last movement. Though
here it’s now a case of a great virtuoso orchestra simply being given
its head to revel in that new acoustic and the obvious confidence they
have in their new Music Director. Here is all the power and depth of
sound that you could wish for in a performance of this movement. But
I was also impressed that never in the big romantic tune this movement
contains does Muti ever become self-indulgent. He certainly has enough
grasp of what is going on not to divorce such a wonderful melody from
what surrounds it and pull it about like some ham actor reciting romantic
poetry. At the very end the coda towers and storms but is likewise never
coarse, never shouts at us and loses its temper. There is real eloquence
at the end with the horns especially well recorded to round off a performance
I was glad to get to know again, even though it can never be a front
recommendation. In the final analysis Mahler’s First Symphony is much
more than the eloquent showpiece for great orchestras that Muti and
the Philadelphia deliver. However full marks to EMI’s engineering team
for capturing them on the wing and for reissuing this superb recording.
For what I think may be the first time on a recording
of this work EMI have resisted the temptation to call it "Titan"
on the front cover. This is a title that Mahler discarded when he submitted
his first symphonic work to revision and which has no business on the
same billing as this work but which record companies and concert promoters
still insist on pinning on to it. A pity, therefore, that this good
practice is ruined by the anonymous liner notes writer who informs us
that Mahler added the title "Titan" after he revised
the symphony. A case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand
is doing, I think.
A performance to stress this symphony as a stunning
orchestral showpiece, with sound recording and playing of the highest
order.
Tony Duggan
Philadelphia Orchestra/Ricardo
Muti