I listened to the Dudamel/SBYO M5 on the radio the other night. I should note that the sound from FM radio on my sound system is not nearly as good as CD sound, and that I only heard the recording once, so it is possible my impressions will change on repeated listenings.
That having been said, I was unimpressed. The playing seemed good, but not exceptional. As for the conducting -- Dudamel's "concept" of the piece, at least as preliminarily ascertained by my admittedly non-expert ears -- I sense that Dudamel needs to live with this piece for another decade or two.
It is, perhaps, unfair in some sense to compare this recording with the greatest versions of M5 on disc -- in my view, Chailly/RCO and Bernstein/VPO. But like Dan Quayle and JFK, Dudamel has invited the comparison, simply by taking on the piece for his second recording, in the context of the attendant hype and PR blitz of his recording company.
This is a mature symphony. The relative innocence and Romanticism of the first four symphonies is vanished. Mahler has clearly suffered. His suffering, as expressed in M5, is clearly personal as well as universal. The world he portrays has turned a corner. WWI is on the distant horizon -- we have entered a new, disorienting age.
But I did not hear this in a first listen to Dudamel's M5. I heard music -- well-played, but not animated by the inner life this symphony demands.
I would like to hear Dudamel and the SBYO in M1 -- a young composer's symphony, with a spirit of adventure and fun very different from the nearly nightmarish vision of M5. Yet on first acquaintance, I can't help but think that Dudamel chose the wrong Mahler symphony for his recorded debut with this composer.
