I have now lived with Casella's Second Symphony for a few months, and I'm prompted to put in another plug for this masterful work. I'm convinced that all serious Mahler-lovers should give this work a chance, and that many of them will find it as enjoyable and worthwhile as I do.
There are two recorded CD versions, both released in 2010 -- the Noseda/BBC Philharmonic/Chandos, and the La Vecchia/Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma/Naxos. The Noseda is distinguished by very good-to-excellent sound -- atmospheric, plenty of space around the notes, and perhaps as a result the musicians in the complexly-orchestrated work produced more attractive, rounder sounds.
I bought the Noseda first, and was delighted with it. But the low Naxos price made it impossible to resist the La Vecchia . . . and I now find I prefer it. Although the recorded sound isn't as good as the Noseda, it's completely adequate, even for a work that has a lot going on most of the time. Perhaps the best way that I, a non-musician, can convey the difference is by noting that the Noseda/Chandos reading takes 49:20, while the La Vecchia/Naxos winds up at 55:43. I have a mild general preference for faster readings of the Mahler symphonies that the Casella Second most resembles, in a general sense -- those would be M2, M1 and M5 -- but in the case of these recordings of the Casella Second, slower seems better. La Vecchia never seems too slow -- and in a few places, he seems too fast -- but the impression I have is that he and his orchestra just dig into this music more. Expressively, they get more out of it. For example, as I type this, I'm listening to La Vecchia's rendition of the march theme of the fourth movement -- and he makes it convey a very apt grotesquerie. By contrast, the same passage in the Noseda sounds almost jaunty . . . which doesn't work quite as well.
I also recommend the La Vecchia/Naxos recording of the Casella First. This sounds very Russian -- Casella was a chameleon -- reminiscent of Rachmaninoff or Rimsky, strong on melody and color, and also, in my view, deserving of a place in the repertory.
And, while I'm here, I might as well mention my other terrific recent discovery of recorded music -- the new CD recording of Philip Glass's opera, Orphee. This opera is based on Jean Cocteau's great B&W film from the late Forties, Orpheus. The film itself is hypnotic, like a living dream . . . in my view, one of the greatest films. Glass has taken the screenplay as his libretto almost verbatim. Glass's music also can have a sensual, hypnotic effect . . . and the opera is spellbinding.
I imagine Mahler would have liked it.
