15
I just listened to this on Idagio and for me it goes to the top of the list. If dynamic contrast is limited, to me it seems the other way around, that the quieter parts are normal and the loud parts seem restrained. But it's not egregious and I'm not sure I would have noticed, Barry, if you hadn't pointed it out. I am listening with good Grado headphones on a business-class laptop.
Järvi places the second violins on the right and low strings on the left. In the Zinman recordings, the seconds were also on the right but so were the low strings. In Zinman the seconds often seemed faint but in this recording, they're at parity. Mahler often exploits interplay between the two sections and the antiphonal placement pays dividends.
Example: In the second movement, just before number 19, the firsts and seconds play staggered high Fs, a passage that loses its effect if the violins are massed instead of separated. Then too, in that elaborate contrapuntal writing in the Finale, the antiphonally placed sections help clarify the lines.
One strong virtue of this recording is not only transparency through the whole orchestra but the coherence and strength of the woodwind choir, which is sadly rare and at least for me, a hallmark of a satisfying Mahler performance.
I did not notice particular mannerisms, Järvi following Mahler's instructions scrupulously, apart from one quibble: In the Scherzo, shortly before number 29, the obbligato horn plays a series of quarter notes ending in three descending notes that land on a C (notated; actual pitch F). At the beginning of this phrase, Mahler writes "nicht riten." and "nicht zurückhalten!" indicating that the phrase should be played firmly in tempo until those three descending notes, finally mark "rit." The horn player slows down a bar or so before he is supposed to. Quite a common contravention of the composer's explicit instructions, and in many performances, it's much more pronounced.
The hornist, Ivo Gass, is otherwise first class in every way. I can also praise the instances when a sustained note shifts between the obbligato horn and the orchestral section; in many performances, the loudness sometimes fades (though *somebody* is supposed to be playing fortissimo throughout the phrase). Here it's performed as Mahler instructs.
Overall, to my ears this is a really outstanding release and I'm looking forward to upcoming installments in the cycle.
Note: My score is the Dover, based on the 1904 C. F. Peters edition.
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