Zinman M3, mvts II - VI (I like it a lot)

[barry guerrero]

OK, I haven't listened to the first movement yet, so it's unfair that I even post on the Zinman M3. But let me tell you, the last five movements completely exceeded my expectations. The musicality and thought behind this is  just outrageous - freakin' fantastic.

For example, in the scherzo, Zinman uses two different offstage locations for the posthorn solos. Initially, the trumpet is fairly distant. Later, as we approach the harmonic cadence point - where the horns just in - the trumpet is quite a bit closer. This really helps, as Zinman - just like MTT - takes these cadence points at a relatively slow tempo. But they're so much more musical here than on MTT's somewhat pathetic attempt! After the climactic central section (done quite well, by the way), the posthorn returns to the more distant location. At the coda, Zinman uses two different gongs, or two different mallets. The fast gong strokes are much brighter sounding, and are dampened very quickly. The last two tam-tam strokes are deep and profound sounding; and permitted to ring on too.

Indeed, at the start of the "bim-bam" choral movement, Zinman uses the same bells that he employed at end of his "Resurrection" recording. Indeed, they are a bit more serious sounding than normal. But at the end of the movement, the triangle and glockenspiel are nice and bright sounding. While the chorus sounded relatively small on his "Resurrection" recording (good organ though), they sound very upfront here.

In the second movement, Zinman makes huge contrasts between the fast and slow sections. Frankly, I prefer it when the start of the second movement is taken a bit quicker, and the start of the scherzo is done a tad slower. But the woodwinds are so freakin' fantastic on this recording (hear that Chicago!?!), that I hardly mind the quicker tempo at all (who knows, he may be right!). And, in contrast to MTT - who also takes the scherzo quick - the low strings don't slow down when they chime in with their chugging triplet figures (three notes to a beat). That's a good sign!

Now, here's I differ from Scott a bit. He felt that the big moments in the outer movements might be underplayed (I haven't listened to the first movement yet). But I thought that the balances at the climax of the long brass chorale - right where the final cymbal crash is located - were freakin' fastastic (freakin' is my word of the night). There's a huge bass drum roll, but it tapers down rather quickly. But where the horns enter, they really blast out. It gives the sensation of the melodic line really getting picked up by the horns - pumping new life into the ending of the chorale. On the symphony's final few chords, I love the kettle drum balances - not too loud, but not too soft either. The brass chords are kept rather subdued; until you get to the final two, that is. Just as Riccardo Chailly does on his fine recording, Zinman progressively lengthens each of those last three chords. Again, it's just very musically done. I thought it was fantastic - a perfect balance of musicality and subjective whatever-ness.

As Scott mentioned, Birgirt Remmert is terrific in both movements. I'll return with news on the first movement later.

Barry