DH gives 7/7 for Gergiev/LSO/LSO M9th SACD

[John Kim]

David Hurwitz gives a moderate rating 7/7 (performance/sound) for the Gergiev/LSO/LSO Mahler Ninth SACD.

As you know, I was rather happy to own this recording, especially considering that this is the last in the Gergiev/LSO Mahler cycle, and wrote an enthusiastic review. I'd still stick to my original review and give an 8/8 rating.

For those interested in DH's review, here it is:

    Gergiev brings this symphony home in just under 80 minutes, and so it fits on a single disc. I have no doubt that anyone attending this concert would have come away satisfied: it's a solid, serious performance, but it's not particularly well played, or distinctively interpreted. The first movement works best. It's well paced, with effective climaxes, but already it's evident that the balances and the acoustic project the strings in a most unflattering light. They sound weak, thin, and tentative. Even the finale, which begins quite beautifully, fails to accumulate the necessary density of sonority as the music surges forward.

    In the central movements the first scherzo lacks personality. Gergiev's treatment of the opening dance is disarmingly matter-of-fact, the waltz swift but never sharply accented enough to capture the music's bitter edge. The Rondo: Burleske has moments of shaky ensemble, particularly in the reprise, which starts off so quickly that you wonder how Gergiev will find room to accelerate toward the end. Answer: he doesn't. Again, this isn't a dishonorable performance, but it's just not competitive with the best either interpretively or sonically.

    --David Hurwitz

[John Kim]

I've listened to the recording again.

It's certainly a very good performance that deserves to be heard.

I quite like the ending of III. I don't hear the ensemble slip that DH indicated. Listen to the London woodwinds who are screaming and shouting near the end.

And the SACD sound is very fine too; you just have to turn the volume up.

For my money, it's a solid, enjoyable M9th.

I'd stick with my original rating, 8/8.

[John Kim]

In fact, I like the SACD sound very much.

In this recording, the great LSO (one of the three best Mahler orchestras in the world, IMO) has startling presence in all the departments; strings sound clean, beautiful, velvety, and vibrant, if somewhat lacking the richness, while the brass is balanced perfectly both within its section and against the rest of the orchestra. Only nitpicking I have is that cymbal rolls at crucial points, e.g, the first and second climaxes, in the first movt. come a half or a bar later and hence diminish the impact. And they are rather weak, as in Karajan II. and Levine.

Just crank up the volume to appreciate the sonics.

John,