Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor "Resurrection" Conductor: Simon Rattle Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Performers: Arleen Auger (Soprano), Dame Janet Baker (Mezzo Soprano) City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus Date of Recording: 1986 Venue: Watford Town Hall, England Release Date: 10/25/1990 Label: Emi Classics Catalog #: 47962 Spars Code: DDD Number of Discs: 2 Recorded in: Stereo Length: 85 Minutes 44 Secs 1: 23:52 2: 10:16 3: 11:18 4: 05:07 5: 35:10 ------------- Review: Sir Simon Rattle is currently represented by his studio recording with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on EMI (CDS7 47962-8), though I've seen rumours of a "live" recording by him at some point in the future. This would be welcome as I have been impressed by recent performances which seem to confirm his present recording, superb though it is, was "work in progress" in comparison. There is no doubt too that the "live" element would make it an even more unforgettable experience. In the first movement Rattle has a very individual way with the opening figure, making every note tell. It's certainly a dark and determined start and accentuates an even grimmer side to the music than we are used to. The following ascending figure flows beautifully and note, as with Scherchen, the basses tracking every moment in the depths. This is one of the most impressive of starts and shows it's possible to be spacious without compromising drama. In the first development I have always been struck with Rattle by the keening woodwinds and the superb pianissimo on the rising lyrical theme with some really soft playing from the horns. In spite of the massive quality no momentum is lost when the music picks up. The same basic, underlying and tragic pulse is present showing Rattle master of structure. The restatement of the opening figure at the second development, played as Rattle plays it, takes us into a kind of lower circle and as the music tries to climb out of the pit into which it's been hurled there begins a tremendous piece of strategic planning that will, in the end, pitch us into the great descent into the recapitulation crisis with such fearsome inevitability that when it arrives there is power, terror and grandeur of an entirely different dimension. This passage is magnificent. Without question the best I have ever heard. The sound of the CBSO brass blazing in perfect unison is stunning as Rattle conveys the sense of the world falling to bits like no one else. When the recapitulation itself emerges from under the torrent the mood is chastened, but still the underlying sense of structure remains as Rattle has recognised where the true climax lies. Again in the coda Rattle's sense of the music's shape within the broader time span, his awareness of the peculiar colour and the great sense of the finest grades of dynamics, makes this a true summation of his view of the first movement. One point of detail is the final descending scale. Mahler apparently asks this to be played at a much slower tempo than is usually observed. Rattle takes Mahler at his word making a unique end to a unique interpretation. There is a nice moderate tempo for the start of the second movement and a warm tone for the strings. Rattle marks well the contrast between this and the first movement so this emerges as a real intermezzo, with some lovely "old world" slides in the strings. The central section is quicker and more challenging. No conductor in this survey, save Klemperer or Walter, make quite so much of this movement, its sense of yearning and its busily worried quality. No other injects quite as much control over it either. In the third movement Rattle doesn't have Klemperer's sense of irony, or Scherchen's analytic quality, but he does make the movement work. The rute is too soft, though, which is surprising, but the brass outbursts are magnificent, propelling the music forward, shafts of light breaking through dark clouds. This is a performance of great contrasts so the slowing down for the trumpet solo makes for a nostalgic interlude, illustrating Rattle's grip on the many-sided nature of this work and of being able to switch moods in the twinkling of an eye. The descent to the cry of disgust is as superbly handled as the corresponding section in the first movement and again the same sense of the need to find the real climax as the cry itself caps the movement as the real core. It is as if this cry of disgust was necessary for purgation before we enter into transcendence. No conductor delivers that feeling but Rattle - a truly unique insight. In "Urlicht" we are in the presence of Janet Baker and her superb musicianship with Rattle's support carries all before it. Note the exotica of the central section, straight out of turn-of-the-century Vienna. There then follows a stunning opening to one of the finest recordings of the fifth movement ever: expectant, epic, grand and aware of every strand as the music dies down for the call in the wilderness. There is a feeling of huge distances and as the music goes through its various episodes. The impression is of a series of steps being mounted, huge plateaux where we and Mahler are dwarfed yet never obscured. Notice how Rattle seems to change mood at the first appearance of the "Oh glaube" motive. The climax prior to the percussion crescendi heralding the march starts from solemn lower brass, played slowly like a Bruckner chorale, then mounts of a climax that is shattering. Again the sense of knowing where each real climax lies and paying it all the attention it needs must be noted. Not surprisingly, Rattle gives the percussion crescendi the longest span possible but the march is perfectly paced, powerful yet, like Klemperer, sapping of energy. Though only Klemperer really gives it the trenchant sense of great weight being dragged along - our sins, no doubt. The approach to the climax of the march, where the music collapses in on itself, almost equals Klemperer's sense of exhaustion here and the collapse itself almost floors you. In the section that follows I was impressed by the ripe trombone solo with the second "Oh Glaube" as well as the tension carried over from collapse. The off-stage band sounds like a gang of demons snapping at our feet. Then there is some lovely soft singing from the choir with every word clear and again the sense of another page having turned. But there are still questions as Janet Baker intones "O Glaube". There is a feeling of arrival as the last section begins and the final resurrection hymn is broadly sung with a grand, solid certainty that we are entering paradise. The splendid recording copes superbly with everything Mahler throws at it - percussion, brass, organ and the final pages leave you breathless with awe. The playing of the orchestra is as good as any and better than most, and overall this performance has great reach, grandeur, excitement and involvement. Maybe it lacks Klemperer's sense of a hard struggle, as well as his sense of the grotesque, the earthly qualities. But it has an epic reach beyond Klemperer that goes a long way to compensate. Of all the studio recordings I have dealt with this one by Rattle comes closest to the sounding as if it is being given live and I believe is as worthy as Walter's to stand alongside Klemperer as one of the greatest interpretations ever recorded: the other side of the coin, another "moralist" to Klemperer's "immoralist". Tony Duggan http://www.musicweb.uk.net