| The recording I have is Simon Rattle/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. I highly recommend it. I've never thought of Boulez as suited for Late Romantic-era music. A little too dry and literal. But then, I like my Mahler way over the top.
The alto was good, but that soprano really did the job, eh? I'm pretty sure this soprano also was featured 4 years ago when the NSO performed the Second with Gilbert Kaplan conducting.
I agree about Mahler as a live experience. This is the fourth Mahler performance I've seen (the 2nd two times, and the 3rd and 9th each once), and what always strikes me is how much is going on at once. In most Romantic symphonies, there are a few basic things going on across the sections, but with Mahler, each section is playing its own unique part. It's astounding how it all fits together. You can just bathe in the music, focusing on the cellos for awhile, shifting to the different violin sections, then to the horns...good stuff. I read a piece about the 9th Symphony that described it as chamber music written for an orchestra, and I think that fits all of his music.
BTW, did you notice that the strings were arranged in antiphonal seating? The first violins were on one side of the conductor, the second and third violins on the other side, and the violas and cellos behind him. That was the performing standard in Mahler's day, and a lot of his music is written with "call and response" parts between the violin sections to take stereo advantage of that seating. Modern seating arrangements usually group the violins together on one side and the violas and cellos on the other. That was a very pleasant surprise when I saw it last night. |