In review: Mahler in 2011

[barry guerrero]

This has been quite a year - so much so, that people don't seem to be talking about Mahler at all at this point. Can you blame them?

For me, there have been two wonderful, standout events: The Leipzig Mahlerfest in which everybody was permitted to take part in over the web, and the Zellerbach Auditorium (Berkeley) performance of Mahler 6 with the Vienna Phil./Semyon Bychkov. As luck would have it, I was working directly across the street from Zellerbach.

Of course, MTT/SFSO put on several Mahler symphonies this last year. I didn't partake in any of those because I simply didn't have time or money (it's also no secret that I'm not crazy about their Mahler in general). Reports indicated that the Mahler 3 was clearly better, interpretively speaking, that what was captured for the recording several years ago.  

I guess I should mention my own 'Mahlerabend' at The Musical Offering. After fears that the audience would be waaay too small, the entire place was packed with people. I was a bit un-nerved by the size of the event - that, and also dealing with the balances of the stereo, as well as dealing with a brand new CD player. Anyway, everyone said that it went really well.

In terms of recordings, my favorite ones pretty much came late in the year:  the Honeck/Pittsburgh M3 (Exton); Jurowski/LPO M2; the Noseda/BBC Phil. M7 (BBC Magazine - and maybe that was last year); Pappano/St. Cecilia M6 (EMI).

I also picked up the DVD of M2 with Chailly/Leipzig Gewandhaus. After reading numerous reviews, I'll pick up their M8 as well.

For 2012, I'll be going to L.A. with two friends to see the Mahler 8th at the Shrine Auditorium - a performance that promises to have well over a thousand performers on stage (both of Dudamel's orchestras will be playing).

I forgot to mention that I really enjoy the new "DLvdE" on Naxos, which just came out last month as well.


OK, your turn.

Barry Guerrero

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

OK, your turn.

In 2011 I attended several live performances of Mahler's symphonies.

The most wonderful were the M3 with the OSR/Marek Janowski and , as a very good surprise the ONF/Gatti M8 . This was my first live M8 and it will remain for me an unforgettable event .Small hall (Théatre du Chatelet -Paris), less than 400 performers on stage, but with the excellent acoustics there was a great feeling of power.At the end the vibrations all around the hall were awesome.

I attended a M2 with the ONL (Orchestre National de Lyon)/Leonard Slatkin .The performance was very good, as expected, but not really moving for me.

I also attended two performances of M4,one with the ONL the other with the Sinfonietta of Lausanne that permitted me to hear two of the good sopranos of the moment in this symphony , Camilla Tilling and Miah Persson.

For 2012 I will attend performances of DLVDE (chamber version), M5 (Gergiev/Marinski), M1 (ONL/Slatkin), and I hope to be fortunate enough to get tickets for the Abbado/Lucerne M8 .

OK,your turn.

SB

[barry guerrero]

"Camilla Tilling and Miah Persson"   .    .     .   yep; couldn't do much better than those two!  Hey, I just want to confirm that OSR would be the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, while ONF would be the Orchestre National de France. Is that correct?  Regardless, it sounds as though you had a spectacular year.

Barry

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

I just want to confirm that OSR would be the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, while ONF would be the Orchestre National de France. Is that correct?  

That's right.
 I was not enthusiastic about what I could hear of the Gatti/ONF cycle on the radio broadcasts , but the M8 I attended was a really moving experience .

SB

[sperlsco]

To the best of my memory, the only Mahler we had live in Houston in 2011 was a disappointing M5 in which Eschenbach returned to conduct the HSO.  It was a one-night performance and it seemed under-rehearsed, poorly played, and strangely conducted.  It was one of my few true disappointments in an HSO performance.  Of course, Eschenbach got a huge ovation...so what do I know.  

As for commercial recordings, the absolute standouts for me were the M2 and M8 Blu-ray discs from Chailly and the LGO (part of the Leipzig MFest).  I also liked two DLvdE's.  One from Graf/HSO and the other from Gielen/SWRSO.  Both stop short of greatness because of a less-than-ideal mezzo, but I still enjoyed the overall performances.  

I also liked two Exton releases with Inbal conducting -- an M2/Tokyo MSO and an M5/Czech PO -- although neither had performances as good as his earlier Cologne RSO versions.  

I really never gave much of a chance to a bunch of other releases by Honeck, Salonen, Jurowski, Stenz, Nott, Noseda, etc.  Most of them got one spin and never peaked my interest.  My mood is possibly more to blame than any deficiency in the performances.  I just didn't have the Mahler bug as much as in previous years.  

[waderice]

Here in Washington, DC, probably the most unusual Mahler concert conceivable was performed by the Washington Chorus this past May 1.  I and another friend enjoyed this Mahler marathon which was a sampling of virtually everything choral that Mahler ever wrote.  Ever since hearing that concert, I've struggled with how best to describe it to everyone here, without begging a large number of questions, and I guess I'll now have to deal with that.  Bottom line, it was Mahler in a reduced format, certainly without the large choral forces required for M8, and only the choral finale from M2, not the entire movement.  I could tell that by the end of the concert, the members of the Washington Chorus were justifiably exhausted from such strenuous singing.  I'll let the link to the below review from The Washington Post tell the rest.  Feel free to ask any questions you may have about this concert I attended.  Oh, BTW, the choral arrangement of the one Rueckert song that was performed was Ich bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/music-review-the-washington-choruss-all-mahler-extravaganza-at-kennedy-center/2011/05/01/AFLPfLbF_story.html

Wade

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

the choral arrangement of the one Rueckert song that was performed was Ich bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen.

I suppose it was the arrangement of Clytus Gottwald. I love how the voices emphasize the harmonic frictions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8igMqRvzFFY&feature=related


CG also made  arrangements of  other Mahler's lieder .Here "die zwei blauen Augen":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWUvfd7OAwc

[stillivor]

Two highlights.

M9 at the proms '66 under Horenstein, on YouTube with no break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aXiQwKap0w&list=FL-T5raEzGrVpGL8S5JmaXqQ&index=52&feature=plpp_video

And the M10 3CD box including m10's world premiere. The first CD with deryck Cooke discussing his work on the draft was gripping.



    Ivor

[ChrisH]

My best of Mahler in 2011 would have to be spending 4 days/nights in Leipzig for the Mahler Fest. I was lucky enough to hear the 7th with the BRSO and Yannick Nezet Seguin, Das Lied with Fabio Luisi and the Concertgebouw, and Mahler 6 with David Zinman and Tonhalle Zurich. It was also excellent to meet up with a friend whom  I hadn't seen in quite sometime. He plays bassoon in the New York Philharmonic. Was slightly bummed to not hear them do the Mahler 5 with Gilbert but, hanging out with him after was definitely worth it. Having breakfast with members of the Phil before they left for Prague was priceless.






For recordings from this year I'd have to go with the Honeck/Pittsburgh Mahler 3, Stenz and his sublime Wunderhorn, Jansons Mahler 3 with the RCO, and the Gielen Das Lied. 

[ChrisH]

I wanted to add another recording from this past year that really struck me. It's a radio broadcast of Gielen doing the Mahler 7 with Baden-Baden in Strasburg. He maintains  his ideas of modernity still but slows this down a bit. Quite a bit actually. The Finale clocks in at 22:53! It's a very unique listen to this work.

[Fafner]

Not much Mahler for me last year. Abbado's LvdE in Berlin was an highlight in the first part of the year, the 10th Adagio from the first part of that concert was a relative letdown (not because of the conductor but the orchestra didn't seem to get much involved there that evening, they woke up later). But the 10th Adagio at the Lucerne Festival, again with Abbado, was completely on another league. Rattle's M7, again at the Lucerne Festival, didn't involve me that much. Technically impressive, tough. On 23th Dec. I was at Florence for a M9 with Abbado to celebrate the opening of the new theatre. Impressive, very touching evening, but no match for the Lucerne 2010 performance.

For 2012, these are the plans (I already got tickets for these):
M8 with Abbado at Lucerne...with this one, he's going to complete his cycle and I'm going too, having always been there
M2 with Nelsons (Birmingham orch.), again at Lucerne. Nelsons striked me as an impressive conductor during the Lucerne Festival 2011, expecting much from him.
M1 with Jansons (Concertgebouw), guess where...? (3rd time he conducts this at Lucerne in the last 10 years...ok, with different orchestras, but what about something else??)

I'm still undecided about a M9, again at Lucerne, with Maazel...he's not one of the conductors I usually feel particularly impressed from. Tendency is to pass on this one...

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

(I already got tickets for these):

You had to get a subscription for that,no ?

SB

[Fafner]

(I already got tickets for these):

You had to get a subscription for that,no ?

SB

Yes. I actually got 2 of them, because combining them I was able to end up with 8 symphonic concerts I had already planned to get tickets for. I'm a bit less happy about their way of forcing you to choose chamber/sacral programs; last year it was 1 for each subscription and it was acceptable. Forcing 2 of them for each subscription was a little too much imho.

[hrandall]

I suppose if I'm going to post in this thread I better do it before 2012 slips away...

2011 was the year for me where my Mahler fascination grew into an obsession - anyway, that's what my wife says! I discovered Mahler's music in the second half of 2010, and so 2011 really was the year I grew more familiar with his music, attended a few live performances, and purchased the bulk of my ever-expanding Mahler CD collection.

My favorite new releases in 2011 were Jurowski / LPO's M2, Honeck / Pittsburgh's M3, and on DVD, Chailly / Gewandhausorchester Lepzig's M8.

My favorite new-to-me CD of the year is Nagano's Das Klagende Lied. Definitely worth the price I had to pay for it.

I had the wonderful experience of attending the M1 "Budapest" 1889 performance - yes, with caveats, I know! - at the New England Conservatory in Boston in October, and returning in November to hear their M3. Fantastic performances, both. I was able to attend Gilbert Kaplan's pre-concert lecture at the M1 performance, and it alone was worth the trip to Boston. (3 hours from my little neck of the woods in northern New Hampshire).

Perhaps best of all were the personal contacts and friendships I've formed with some of you here this year. Here's to an even better 2012!

Cheers,
Herb

[barry guerrero]

Beautiful, Herb. Thanks for sharing.