Review on Rattle's two 10ths

Time now for another review. This time it's Rattle's two recordings of the 10th. I've owned Rattle's 10th with Berliner Philharmoniker for a long time and love it very much. I have long believed it to be the best version of this symphony, even tho I never did any comparison. Earlier in this thread DarkAngel mentioned that he likes Rattle's recording with Bournemouth SO better, which haunted me for weeks, wondering if I'm missing out an even better performance. So I ordered a used copy from Amazon and after a few days of listening produced this review:

Overall: Sound quality wise, I found the BSO version of be more exciting, It sounded more forward and instrument separation is almost too good. I suspect it might be a studio recording (too lazy to look up in booklet), but the amount of ambient noise suggested otherwise. This, however, doesn't mean the BP version doesn't sound good. It is very neutral and packs an amazing amount of detail. Performance wise, BP was much more balanced, which I think is more appropriate. I've read reviews that state the BSO version to correspond to Mahler's later chamber music-like style better. If so, then the ensemble must have been made of a bunch of bullies as solo instruments were constantly battling each other. They jump out whenever they have a chance, leaving no space for the instruments exiting the theme. In retaliation the exiting instruments lingered around for a little longer. The outcome was rather disasterous, IMHO.

In the first movement, BP was somewhat slower, which build good foundation for the entire performance since there are numerous references to the first movement in later movements (esp. the finale). Elements of terror gradually creep in and finally lead to the horrifying (literally if you're not expect a full out attack of brass) moment. This process works much better in BP's slower performance.

To be honest, I found the performance of BSO's strings in this movement to be more engaging, although a little fatiguing as well. I certainly could understand if someone prefers this recording because of the adagio. In his later recording with BP, Rattle seemed to have chosen a better integrated sound image, which resulted in a more subtle adagio. However, this approach worked very, very well for the last two movements, as will be describled later. Also, the more exciting strings of BSO also subdued the forementioned moment of horror.

As an interesting sidenote, at exact 23:00 in the BP recording, the marching drum appeared to be hit accidentally. If I was that guy in percussions I'd have dug a hole in the ground and hid in it (it was live performance).

My impression on the first scherzo is that BP sounded much more articulate. There's a lot of changes in tempo and dynamics in this movement, and BP navigated through them with ease. I think the difference in quality of those two orchestras is no more apparant than in this movement.

Again, BP's performance was splendid in purgatorio. There's no much difference in intepretation of this and the previous movement between the two versions (none that I could find, anyway).

The second scherzo is very powerful scherzo material. The alternation was despair -> cheerful waltz -> blend. The alternation between themes become more and more rapid and dramatic; creating an impression that the happiness was only superficial and never meant to last. Wood winds of BP incorporated into the overall texture much better. Brass winds played a very important role in the change of themes and BP really shined as well. As can be imagined, BSO's battling instruments didn't work too well and the transistions sounded stiff and harsh.

The last movement. As mentioned before, the BP recording was much better balanced. BSO's percussion stood out to an almost unbearable level and can be quite distracting. My comment about instruments battling each other was also largely from this movement. In comparison, solo plays of BP were of much higher quality.

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Review of Walter's Mahler 9th.

I recently acquired two of Bruno Walter's historical Mahler recordings. Das Lied von der Erde (with Kathleen Ferrier & Julius Patzak) was interesting but doesn't really stand out among the zillion different versions out there. The 9th with VPO, on the other hand, is rather remarkable and therefore I've decided to bore you all with a review:

Since I was introduced to the 9th symphony by modern performances, my impression of how it should be done is very much the modern way. Therefore, all the description here are relative to the mainstream modern rendition of this work.

Being recorded in 1938, the sound quality obviously leaves much to be desired. It was particularly bad in the beginning of the 1st movement and got progressively better. I don't really understand how recording worked back then (it seemed to involve wax somehow) so I'm not going to comment. Performance wise, the first half of 1st movement doesn't differ from modern ones much. Walter's conducting possess much energy and is quite rigorous as most musicians of his days, and the first movement was presented in a calculated and gentle manner.

Despite the ubiquitous criticism toward modern conductors' slower approaches to Mahler's symphonies, I was still utterly shocked by Walter's intepretation of the 2nd movement. Gone was the familiar gradualism and suspense; the accelerated play simply overwhelms its audience and leaves them breathless. The strings was much firmer and more confident than modern performances. However, one negative effect of this massive quickening, in my opinion, is the loss of detail of each soli instruments. As we entered the second part of this movement, the variations in speed became considerably more perceptible yet perfectly transparent. In a way it was like an emotion roller-caster, and converted this movement's role from a transitional sidekick to a leading cast.

Instead of an undifferentiated accelaration like before, Walter dramatized the opening of the third movement. I also suspect the version he had is different from what we commonly hear nowadays since there are notable discrepancies in length of certain notes.

Unsurprisingly, the 4th movement was very fast, and perhaps even more so than the other 3 movements. I must say this makes it tremedously less depressing. The first thought that occurred to me was: "Gee he really wanted to get done with it ASAP", as the pain and grief we're used to hear in this movement were barely detectable. Perhaps this really was his intention. This symphony was Mahler's farewell to this world, and as close to Mahler as Walter was, it was probably excruciating for him to linger for long. With that in mind, this movement suddenly seemed as emotional as any other version.

In all, I tend consider this CD more of an alternative interpretation rather than the reference recording as some choose to do. It is fun to listen to this recording once in a while, but to put it on my regular list will probably be quite a mental anguish; largely due to poor sound quality. If somehow I can get hold of his 1961 recording with Columbia, however, I'm sure it would become my favorite version of the 9th symphony.