M7 w/ A. Nelsons/Vienna Phil. streaming late tonight in U.S.

[barryguerrero]

Hi. The Vienna Phil. is streaming Mahler 7 on Sunday, Jan. 15 at 11AM Vienna time. For me in on the left of the U.S. of A., that makes it 1 or 2AM (I think). You can hear it at Fidelio and O1 (the letter "O", as in Oesterreich). It'll also be on this Stage Plus site (although the times they give don't make sense to me).

https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ4CPK

[barryguerrero]

This turned out to be absolutely fantastic - possibly the best overall Mahler 7 I've heard. I have a feeling that Nelsons is sort of quickly going through the Mahler symphonies with the V.P.O., and that DG may issue a box set after it's over - just like they did with his Richard Strauss. I'm hoping they do.

It seems his approach to Mahler has been back-engineered from his experiences with Bruckner, R. Strauss and Shostakovich.

[John Kim]

Barry,

Can you offer some detailed analysis of the Nelsons/VPO M7th? Thanks.

John

[John Kim]

I felt that Nelosns was kinda pondering in the opening movt and VPO didn't feel entirely home playing it. They've seldom performed M7th anyway.

John

[barryguerrero]

My reaction was almost the opposite. I thought the first movement was excellent, with plenty of time taken for the slower, centrally placed 'moonlit' passage. I thought Nelsons did a good job of 'lurking in the shadows' in the first two movements, and being more optimistic and 'sunny' in the last two movements. In that regard, he reminded me of Kent Nagano and Osmo Vanska in this work. In the second movement (Nachtmusik I), I like how he took his time where the horns play their signals to each other, while the cowbells quietly bong away in the background. That was done superbly - much better than usual. I thought the second Nachtmusik was absolutely gorgeous, without sounding either rushed or dragged. I enjoyed the entire performance very much.

The whole thing just seemed more introspective, complex and 'probed into' than yet another 'paint by the numbers', 'just the notes, mam', run-through by the Concertgebouw (except at the height of Haitink's powers).