Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 8 (1910) (arranged for organ by David Briggs) [86.29]
Bryn Holdsworth, Rachel Rosales, Jana McIntyre (sopranos), Sara Murphy, Noragh Devlin (mezzo-sopranos), John Tiranno (tenor), Tim Murray (baritone), Adam Lau (bass)
Oratorio Society of New York, Manhattan School of Music Symphony Chorus and Women’s Chorus, Cathedral Choristers of St John the Divine/Kent Tritle
rec. live, Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York, 7 April 2016
PRO ORGANO CD7276 [25.35 + 60.54]
This is the third time in a little over a year that a CD containing
a ‘scaled down’ version of a Mahler symphony has come to me for
review. I must admit that, while recognising that yet another recording of
a Mahler symphony is all too easily lost in the crowd, I find the idea of
a listener preferring to listen to the Resurrection Symphony played
by two pianists or, as here, Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand
with the orchestra reduced to a solitary organ, perverse in the extreme. To
do him justice David Briggs, the arranger responsible for the Eighth
Symphony who plays on this recording makes a pro-active case for
just such a procedure in his booklet notes for this CD. “The final apotheosis
is completely overwhelming – even more so on the organ than the orchestra,
in my humble opinion.” These are strong words, and unfortunately I cannot
say that I find them justified in the event. Even such a relatively straightforward
piece of writing as the lengthy prelude which opens Part Two of the symphony
cannot begin to conjure up the atmosphere of the full orchestral sound that
Mahler created there, and as soon as the textures begin to become more complex
there are instances – which recur time and time again – when important
thematic elements are obscured, inadequately balanced, or simply sound wrong.
The exotic orchestral sounds that Mahler conjures for Mary of Egypt, with
their prominent role for the mandolin, are completely distorted when heard
on the organ even when the player is clearly making every effort to counterfeit
the original effect.
But then it would seem that this arrangement is designed as much as anything
else for the benefit of performers, enabling choirs and teams of vocal soloists
to give their interpretations wider circulation without the enormous cost
of providing a massive romantic orchestra. This is a real matter of importance
for many societies; I remember some twenty years ago receiving a letter from
the late Sir David Willocks in which he lamented the expense involved in mounting
even such an economical work as Messiah. And one could also make
a case that the use of organ instead of orchestra opens up the vocal solos
to singers who no longer have to strain to produce the massive Wagnerian sound
that is otherwise required in full-scale performances. As such, this arrangement
would open up the chance of performances to amateur choral societies, rather
than lying exclusively in the preserve of orchestras who are prepared to run
to the cost of mounting occasional performances.
These considerations would seem to be particularly germane in the case of
the tenor soloist taking the part of Doctor Marianus, where Mahler most inconsiderately
calls for the services of a genuine heroic tenor who at the same time is asked
to ascend into the stratosphere in a lyrical fashion that is simply way outside
the scope of the many heldentenors who began their singing careers
as baritones. Again I remember in the distant past hearing a performance with
Alberto Remedios, whose voice would have seemed almost uniquely suited to
the part, struggling in vain to rise to the high B natural and B flat which
he was required to produce (not to mention the top C well-concealed among
the tutti in the closing pages). The essentially lyric voice of John Tiranno
is fine in the quieter passages, but in the more strenuous sections the sense
of strain is all to palpable. The two sopranos in the final section, who have
to manage the extremely difficult pianissimo transition from B flat
in one part to B flat in the other, are marvellously effective in the hands
of Rachel Rosales and Bryn Holdsworth; but elsewhere they show signs of unsteadiness,
and the third soprano as the Mater Gloriosa, Jana McIntyre, is simply too
close to the microphones. So too are the children’s chorus, who sound
so much louder than the main mixed chorus that the results sound totally artificial.
The two mezzos both sound rather fruity, and again their voices are not ideally
steady. Tim Murray and Adam Lau as the two Fathers Ecstaticus and Profundus
are both steadier of voice production; but both sound rather too politely
ecclesiastical, especially the latter in his bitter tirades.
The problems of recording balance will not of course have perturbed the audience
at this live performance, and the music still managed to make its effect –
as shown by the seemingly interminable applause at the end. For those who
would like a souvenir of the event, and for the performers themselves, this
CD will be self-recommending, as indeed it will for those who would like to
explore alternative aspects of the Mahler tradition (I note that David Briggs
has also produced organ transcriptions of the Second, Third, Fifth
and Sixth Symphonies). For other potential purchasers, this set cannot
hope to replace one of the very many recommendable recordings with full orchestra;
in a review a couple of years ago I noted that Solti’s 1971 recording
still sounds pretty spectacular, either in its original CD form or its audio
Blu-Ray remastering. Solti also manages, just, to get the complete symphony
onto a single disc; but this new two-disc set does offer a complete text in
the booklet together with a rather good English translation which is undeservedly
anonymous. On the debit side there is only one track for each CD, with index
points provided for those with players which can access them.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
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