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General Category => Gustav Mahler and Related Discussions => Topic started by: barry guerrero on January 21, 2007, 04:15:54 AM
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By Edward Seckerson
Published: 12 January 2007
A young man's response to the idea of getting older is likely to be - in common with the healthy man's attitude to the inevitability of dying - a lust for life. This, above all, made Daniel Harding's reading of Mahler's valedictory 9th Symphony so compelling. To see this pale, slightly built, vulnerable-looking, young man stand before one of the most venerable and venerated orchestras in the world - the Staatskapelle Dresden - cannot begin to prepare you for what follows. Out of apparent contradiction comes breathtaking accord.
The celebrated mahogany sound, so familiar from performances here under veterans like Haitink and Colin Davis, assumes a scarifying astringency. Mahler's wind writing takes on a nightmarish immediacy. Woodwinds stretched to the extremes of their registers leap out at you like spooks in a freak show. The horns repeatedly switch from open to stopped sound, turning one of natures noblest sounds into one of its nastiest. If you've wondered if Mahler's extremes can ever be too extreme, then Harding's answer is an unequivocal "no".
Perhaps the most startling aspect of the performance was Harding's overwhelming sense of a harmonic language teetering on the brink of collapse. I don't think I've heard the inner-dissonance, the near-atonality, of the score quite so ruthlessly exposed. This was a dying man's dark night of the soul but one shot through with anger as much as fear, with determination as much as desperation. Harding's account of the second movement's mad ländler was gritty with abandon. This is dance music with attitude, and Harding and his string players pitched heavily into the downbeats - triple-time elegance supplanted by the two-left-feet school of dancing. It was invigorating.
So, too, the sinewy counter-point of the Rondo (Burleske), one of Mahler's most astonishing creations. Talk about wrestling with demons. This is the comedy of life in overdrive - a brutal baroque-like caprice as bracing as it is vindictive. Defiance in the face of death; music in rude health.
Perhaps there were moments in Harding's reading where spontaneity was inhibited by musical point-making; others where he so lost himself in the strangeness of Mahler's universe that the music came almost too close to static. I did feel that he needed to ease up on the string writing of the finale. There's a difference between aspirational and overwrought. Still, the final dissipation was memorable; the fade to black numbingly beautiful. Paradise found.
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Sounds very interesting. DG will apparently record (has already?) this team's Mahler Ninth for a future release.
John,
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John,
I'm curious as to where you read or heard that bit of news.
Barry
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John,
I didn't the article myself, but someone posted on internet that he read it from DG's website that says this recording will be made and released in the near future. I think this is a part of DG's contract with the orchestra.
John,
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I've searched the web, and I can't find any reference to this happening. His website does state that he has signed with DG, and that they have some interesting projects in mind. He is performing M9 with Dresden, all over the place. I suppose DG might possibly use a tape from one of the live performances. It does seem strange that DG, of all labels, would want yet another Mahler 9th.
Barry
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I have a live Harding/FRSO M10th (Cooke version) and like it veyr much. A very solid conducting and playing, a good tempo & balance are what make this performance so compelling.
John,
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Joy to the world. I think Harding may be onto something. I look forward to his M9 recording.
In addition to Seckerson's positive review in The Independent, there's another by classicalsource.com's Douglas Cooksey, dated January 10.
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"Hugely to Harding's credit, this was a performance of remarkable maturity, one completely devoid of ego which focussed instead on what Mahler actually wrote."
This is precisely what I feel about Harding's live M10 recording.
John,
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"Hugely to Harding's credit, this was a performance of remarkable maturity, one completely devoid of ego which focussed instead on what Mahler actually wrote."
This is precisely what I feel about Harding's live M10 recording.
John,
In all fairness, sometimes what people think Mahler wrote is different from what he actually wrote, or revised, or atleast positioned comments to the contrary. Hail to interpretation, within reason. Lots of interpretation for M10. ;D
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I'll take your comment a step further: why is it desireable to be "devoid of ego" on a work that isn't anywhere near finished? I know the Harding M10 that John is speaking of. It's very good, but it's also a bit of a Rattle/BPO clone: fast and tight.
Barry
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but it's also a bit of a Rattle/BPO clone: fast and tight.
Barry
I haven't listened to that Harding M10 in a while, but I'm not certain that I understand a reference to Rattle/BPO as being "fast and tight", at least in terms of "fast". To me, one of the big turnoffs of the Rattle/BPO M10 is the way he draws out both outer movements. Perhaps I am not understanding the reference?
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You're right; I'm thinkiing of the inner movements. They're fast and tight.
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You're right; I'm thinkiing of the inner movements. They're fast and tight.
Picking apart a M10 hasn't occurred to me. Considering the hodge-podge of all the M10s, it might be reasonable and silly enough to ask what favorite movements would highly-interested M10 folk put together for one favorite M10 recording. I confess I'm not interested enough in M10 to undertake such a mission.
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I listened to the first movt. of this Harding/M9th concert on radio. It was on slow side clocking just over 30 min. The playing and sound of the Staatskapelle Dresden were, simply put, "glowing" and sumptuous. Harding's reading emphasized lyrical, transcendental elements in the score. Thus, the quite, zen-like passages (that connect the two huge climaxes) has never sounded more ghostly and serene. His tempo overall was very flexible, something resembling MTT's interpretation in his recent recording, but it wasn't as severely exaggerated as his. Brass & woodwind were outstanding as was the string, a proud tradition of this famous orchestra. Overall, a very satisfying and beautiful M9:I.
John,
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Tells us where you found it on the radio. More to the point, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US WHEN IT WAS BROADCASTING! >:(
. . . just kidding ;D
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I heard the first movement of a performance in Dresden (January 8, 9) via Rapidshare. Too slow. Seemed slower than its 31:35 timing. Such slackness discouraged me from sampling the remaining movements. Doubting that Harding will adjust tempo in subsequent performances and recording, I find I must now severely curb my earlier enthusiasm for his Mahler 9.
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Giulini takes over 31 minutes on his DG recording. But I think it works pretty well because he gets the CSO low brass to really hammer out Mahler's "arhythmic heartbeat" motif at the climax; played with the "greatest possible force" - just as Mahler specifies.
You might be surprised to know that one of Boulez's BBC performances of M9 in the 1970's took up to 32 minutes on the first movement!
Barry
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Giulini takes over 31 minutes on his DG recording. But I think it works pretty well because he gets the CSO low brass to really hammer out Mahler's "arhythmic heartbeat" motif at the climax; played with the "greatest possible force" - just as Mahler specifies.
You might be surprised to know that one of Boulez's BBC performances of M9 in the 1970's took up to 32 minutes on the first movement!
Barry
Too slow, too slow. Later with Chicago, Boulez somewhat shaped up at 29:17. Rosbaud crawled in at 32:02. Chailly at 30:29 sounds painfully slow to me. Keeping in mind that timing isn't everything, I have yet to keep a Mahler 9 that exceeds 30 in the first.
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Well, I actually the way the piece is proportioned on the Abbado/BPO M9, where the two outer movements are somewhat over 25 minutes each. Masur did something similar.
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I listened to the Harding 9th twice last night. It is a great performance through and through. The instrumental timbre and coloring is really effective...the tempos are very natural throughout each movement and foreshadow the inevitability of loss and dissolution heard at the end. This is a very sorrowful 9th in my view.
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I listened to the Harding 9th twice last night. It is a great performance through and through. The instrumental timbre and coloring is really effective...the tempos are very natural throughout each movement and foreshadow the inevitability of loss and dissolution heard at the end. This is a very sorrowful 9th in my view.
Did you hear a radio rip of a live performance? If so, from where? Was it from RapidShare?
BTW Leo: What is the revolving picture show at the bottom of your posts and how do you do it?
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I listened to the Harding 9th twice last night. It is a great performance through and through. The instrumental timbre and coloring is really effective...the tempos are very natural throughout each movement and foreshadow the inevitability of loss and dissolution heard at the end. This is a very sorrowful 9th in my view.
Did you hear a radio rip of a live performance? If so, from where? Was it from RapidShare?
BTW Leo: What is the revolving picture show at the bottom of your posts and how do you do it?
That is Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys..working his magic in the studio (as producer, arranger and songwriter). :) I left you a message on your PM.