Mahler Symphony #5

[micrologus]

Thank you

[Chi_town/Philly]

Originally Posted by micrologus

I'm looking for the best versions of Mahler's 5th symphony.
Can anyone in this group advise me?
Thanks

Consensus on the other board on which I post landed on Solti/Chicago as the top choice. (Adolph Herseth is, after all, a trumpet god). It's a great one- but I haven't heard any that I like more that Tennstedt. Part of my listening project will involve trying to decide whether I prefer Tennstedt New York or Tennstedt London.

[haydnguy]

I have Solti/Chicago for the 6th and I love it. I'm gonna still look around and see what else is out there. I might end up going back to Solti. I'll post back here though.

[Chi_town/Philly]

44 years ago this month, Mahler 5 had its Philadelphia premiere under the baton of Hermann Scherchen. Of course, we know that in the 'bad-old-days' single-movement Mahler excerpts were often performed instead of entire Mahler symphonies- so it shouldn't be surprising that there were also performances that left much on the cutting-room floor, so to speak. This was one of them.

To say, as critic Daniel Webster wrote at the time, that Scherchen's cuts reduced the length of the work by about 7 minutes gives an incomplete picture of the excisions, since the central Scherzo was ribboned to 5'44" and the Adagietto was puffed out to 15'12".

I remember hearing Glenn Gould admit in an interview that there was certain music that he didn't like well enough to play deliberatively. Maybe Scherchen really, really liked the Adagietto in a way that reflects conversely upon the sentiment expressed by Gould.
What's a Mahler 5 thread without some ongoing references to the tempi taken in the Adagietto?
Ultimately, for someone familiar with the fully-developed Part II, the deletion of music in movement 3 will probably be more disconcerting than the near-glacial pace taken in 4.

The Scherchen performance exists as one of the selections on the dozen-CD box set The Philadelphia Orchestra Centennial Collection. The task of winnowing down the Philadelphia Orchestra performances to a 12-CD set makes for some crème-de-la-crème choices... and the obvious intensity and virtuosity in movements 1, 2 and 5 are certainly consistent with the standard. Nonetheless, the treatment of the Adagietto, and especially Part II, make this version more interesting as a historical document than as a "live-with-it" rendition of Symphony 5.

[Kuhlau]

The idea that the fourth movement is 'belittled' by the finale isn't one I subscribe to. 'Transformed' would be my word of choice.

So much anguish seems to precede that beautiful oasis of (almost undisturbed) calm in the famous adagietto. It makes the fourth movement feel, to me, like a final submission to pain and sadness: a willing resignation, yet tinged with regret.

Then Mahler seems, at first, to do something akin to shouting 'April fool!'. The fifth movement is this sudden and joyous renewal, this returning of hope; a near wiping away or purification of almost everything else in the symphony. And when he hear again sections of the fourth movement quoted within the fifth, these are transfigured in a way that to me suggests glory, not mockery.

FK

[Kuhlau]

Incidentally, the Solti recording is good but suffers a little with clipping in the loudest passages. A more modern recording which has impressed me is on the Tudor label: Jonathan Nott conducting the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

FK

[Herr_Direktor]

My favorite quote in all of music:

"I can't think of a more horrible piece of hackwork."

Toscanini on Mahler's 5th symphony.

The Solti recording is outstanding, except for the Scherzo which is just too fast.

[haydnguy]

I decided on the Chailly version...

micrologus, did you ever decide on a Mahler 5 version??

[micrologus]

Originally Posted by haydnguy

micrologus, did you ever decide on a Mahler 5 version??

Not yet HG, I'm still looking and comparing. I'll take all the time needed and finaly get the one that I like the most (as usualy)

[haydnguy]

Originally Posted by micrologus

Not yet HG, I'm still looking and comparing. I'll take all the time needed and finaly get the one that I like the most (as usualy)

A wise decision indeed!