Timpani Placement in Mahler 2

[James Meckley]

A question for Barry, Dave, or anyone else who might know.

A local orchestra is doing M2 this weekend and the conductor has asked that Timpani I and Timpani II be placed on opposite sides of the stage, claiming "this is what Mahler wanted." I spot-checked some recordings this afternoon and found that most conductors put the two sets of timpani quite close together, for example Klemperer, Walter, Kaplan (both), Solti (Chicago), Bernstein, Maazel (NY), de Waart, van Zweden, Honeck, Mehta (Vienna), Litton, Slatkin, Farberman, Kubelik, Bertini, Segerstam, Tennstedt, Abbado (Lucerne), Rattle, Haitink, Gergiev, and Chung. Solti (LSO) shows moderate separation, but both sets are still in the same general area.

I found only two recordings with an extreme left/right timpani placement: David Zinman (Zurich) and Herbert Blomstedt (San Francisco).

I've researched the literature available to me but found nothing suggesting Mahler preferred widely-spaced timpani. Surely Gilbert Kaplan would have uncovered any such preference and employed it in his two recordings. As I look at the two parts, they don't really seem to have been written with antiphonal effects in mind. Does anyone here know something about this?

James

[barry guerrero]

The Chailly M2 sounds as though the timpani may have been placed antiphonally. I think it's a cool effect. However, it does make it more difficult for the two timpanists to hear and see each other. I'll take a look at a score tomorrow morning. But no,I've never seen anything showing that Mahler preferred them set apart.

[James Meckley]

The Chailly M2 sounds as though the timpani may have been placed antiphonally.

Thanks, Barry. To me the Chailly sounds as if the two sets are placed very close together, slightly right of center.

James

[Dave H]

Not only did Mahler NOT require that the timpani be placed antiphonally, the best evidence that Mahler clearly envisaged the timpani as being placed right next to each other occurs in the scherzo, bars 382-3 (just before figure 46), where the second timpanist has the tune, and Mahler writes over the part "In this bar take the low G of the first timpanist for assistance." Folks with scores can go have a look for themselves. This answers the question pretty definitively.

Best,

Dave H

[James Meckley]

This answers the question pretty definitively.

Indeed. Thanks for your response, Dave.

James