I have yet to listen to the recording posted above, but what I can say is that the live performance I came back from a few hours ago was actually quite excellent. Some "facts": S/A order for the inner movements, two hammer strokes in the Finale.
Boulez - somewhat unexpectedly for me - virtually unleashed hell in the Finale, creating an almost unbearably intense and intimidating atmosphere (the Konzerthaus is a rather small and boomy hall, making the whole thing actually incredibly noisy at times...
). The playing of the Staatskapelle was about as dark, gloomy, and world-weary as it gets, with excellent solo contributions (trumpets, clarinets, percussion, and tuba particularly outstanding). Boulez adopted tempi that were a tad slower than I had expected on the whole, but was unsually flexible throughout. Some might argue that the Andante was still somewhat "dry" and the one movement Boulez seemed to care least about, but I felt the three remaining movements were flat-out superb, with the Finale being a particularly merciless, completely unsentimental flight of demons.
Oh, and the hammer blows were deafening, making the elderly ladies in the row in front of mine almost literally jump out of their seats - both times...
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Okay, I just briefly sampled the broadcast recording (excellent sound quality!).
Timings are:
I 22:26
II 12:50
III 12:47
IV 28:23
Total: 76:02
Topic: Boulez, SB,Barenboim; Carter's Interventions, Mahler 6th; Berlin, 20 April 2009. (Read 8833 times)