It has always seemed to me that performances of Mahler’s
Second Symphony fall broadly into two types, best illustrated by recordings
by Bruno Walter (Sony SM2K 64447) and Otto Klemperer (his "live"
Munich recording on EMI CDM 566867-2 for preference). Walter’s lyric
tone stresses spirituality and faith, the certainties that run beneath
this work and which win out in the end. Klemperer's more austere sound
palette, his leaning towards more ironic elements, his willingness to
press on when others pull back (apart from his perverse, though quite
unforgettable, delivery of the march in the last movement) suggests
the uncertainties that run beneath the music, in spite of which we win
through to the same conclusion. Most conductors approaching this work
fall broadly into the former category but I feel that Klemperer’s way
with the music is ultimately more satisfying. Where the Walter approach
takes Mahler's apparent certainty of deliverance at face value Klemperer
asks questions of it and so makes the work even more involving and ultimately
more moving in being concerned as much with what we leave behind as
with what we might inherit in a world to come, and that way can the
magnitude of our hard-won salvation be best gauged.
Riccardo Chailly’s new recording falls pretty much
into the Walter category as a fine realisation of a long and varied
journey to a paradise that is never in doubt. I am not saying for one
moment that this is a boring performance, far from it. It’s just that
never do I really have the feeling that we are living "on the edge",
threatened by having our ultimate deliverance snatched away from us
by the forces going in the other direction. You know from the start
that everything is going to be right in the end and that all we have
to do is sit back and admire the vistas on the way. And what vistas
they certainly are under Chailly. Listen to the luxuriant way he and
his orchestra delivers those magical passages in the last movement where
distant brass accompanies onstage flutes, the aching nostalgia in parts
of the second movement, or the way the Cor anglais embroiders the purple-toned
strings in the rising theme of the first movement. Truly unforgettable
passages from Chailly. As too is his careful presentation of the offstage
brass band in the last movement. This really does appear to start at
a distance and then get closer, just as Mahler asks, and Chailly and
his recording team are to be congratulated for getting this right. Petra
Lang is superb in "Urlicht!" with every word clear
and a very deep sense of urgency in her delivery and Chailly is excellent
in support too. It’s a hard task for the singer in this movement. She
has to make a considerable effect in a very short space of time and
many great singers don’t pull it off to anywhere near this extent.
However, for me, on the downside there is the way the
brass seem to be reined back at crucial moments, either by Chailly,
by the recorded sound, or both. For example what should be the truly
terrifying moment of recapitulation in the first movement emerges as
little more than a few shakes of the fist when compared to Rattle (EMI
CDS7 47962-8) or Bernstein (DG423 395-2) who shake the living daylights
out of us. The march of the dead in the last movement, while certainly
not rushed as it sometimes is, even at this steadier tempo misses the
sheer truculence and the consequent inexorable cranking up of tension
that you get with Klemperer, Barbirolli (EMI 5 75100 2) and Rattle.
I also think Chailly crucially takes just too long ushering in the start
of the last movement after the glorious "Urlicht". There
are crucial seconds of pause between the movements that really spoil
the inner dynamic of what Mahler is doing. The great final tableau should
burst in on us immediately, sweep away what has just calmed and consoled
us. Here it is as if Chailly wants to make sure we are all prepared
and ready for the outburst which, when it comes, therefore doesn’t have
the sense of a crack in doom opening up before us. Was this his decision
or that of his producer? Later the two great percussion crescendi at
191-193 are somewhat truncated, although Chailly is certainly not alone
in that. Simon Rattle is fabulous with these, by the way. In his recording
you think your head is going to burst with the sheer length and volume,
which is just as it should be. This is the sound of every grave on earth
opening, remember. The final pages are handled superbly by Riccardo
Chailly, however, with the fine chorus singing their hearts out. I liked
the deep bells Chailly employs too though I wish they could have been
closer balanced along with the organ which fails to make the heart-stopping
effect that it can.
The Decca recording is rich and spacious. Maybe too
spacious at times. There are some crucial timpani solos that really
are rather distant and detached and fail to shock. On balance I do think
that the way the brass is balanced backward has a lot to do with the
fact that when they are supposed to knock us over they don’t. The Concertgebouw
is famed for its acoustic and I have heard "live" recordings
made in it that exploits this to the full and leaves an unforgettable
impression. But that is with an audience present who soak up some of
the reverberation that here does occasionally show signs of blurring
our, and possibly Chailly’s, focus.
The orchestra plays superbly throughout with all their
experience in this composer coming out effortlessly. Perhaps they play
too effortlessly for those of us who prefer to hear some evidence of
struggle going on in a Mahler work where striving against forces pitched
against us are an important part of the mix. But then perhaps this symphony
is best heard "live" as a communal experience for players
and audience or, failing that, in a recording that is made "live".
Though they are these days sounding more like every other top-notch
symphony orchestra on the planet whilst in years past they had their
own particular sound. I am not alone in mourning its apparent passing.
Which brings me back to my prime recommendation for
this work which remains Otto Klemperer, "live" in Munich on
EMI which I prefer to his earlier studio recording for the same label.
Not faultless by any means but an experience not to be missed. Which
is not something I could ever say about Chailly’s new version in spite
of finding much in it to admire.
The inclusion in this release of "Totenfeier",
the original version of what became the first movement of this symphony
is I suppose apt but still surprising. If you are interested in Mahler’s
first thoughts at a time when he only had in mind writing this single,
standalone piece Chailly is as good as any version you can find. However,
I doubt anyone will be buying these discs just to get this piece. It
is clear from the expanded orchestration and the excision of certain
passages that the later version is superior and that Mahler knew exactly
what he was doing in revising it and absorbing it into the work that
was subconsciously bubbling in his head all the time.
Those collecting Chailly’s Mahler cycle need not hesitate,
others should consider looking elsewhere.
Tony Duggan
Melanie Diener (Soprano),
Petra Lang (Mezzo Soprano),