As I now have some free time in my life (and won't again, very soon), I'm treating myself to a M8 festival. So far, I've listened to J. Nott, Markus Stenz and Colin Davis.
Nott has the best sound, but Stenz has better vocalists - particularly the tenor - and the best ending of ANY Mahler 8 (that said, Zinman makes the best crescendo on the final chord of anyone). But what puts Colin Davis over the top for me, in spite of the lessor sound quality, are two things: 1). conducting, but more importantly, 2.) Davis has outstanding choral forces.
I think that one major factor in evaluating Mahler 8 performances that doesn't get enough consideration is not just the size of the choral forces employed, but how well 'trained' they are for the job. It would be interesting to get the input of choir directors as to which are the better or best Mahler 8's. Obviously though, you can't go entirely by the choirs employed. If you did, everyone would rate the Robert Shaw M8 at the top (which it ain't - not bad though). To complicate matters, acoustics, engineering and microphone placement are all important factors as well.
Davis has been rather self-deprecating when it comes to his Mahler. But I think he need not be - I think he holds his own quite well. As I've pointed out before, because of his thorough experience with ALL of those larger than life Berlioz works, he sounds so comfortable with the scope and rhetoric of Mahler's magnum opus.
For those of you who still own the Davis, I ask you to just compare two major passages against pretty much any other recording. Just play through the entire double fugue in Part I, leading into the reiteration of "Veni, veni Creator Spiritus". IMHO, this entire section has never been done better - the choral work is just outstanding, while Davis' handling of the transition back into Tempo I (Veni Creator Spiritus) is superbly done. It's so well done that I just don't care about the less than overwhelming organ. Then take a listen to the orchestral accompaniment behind the baritone and bass-baritone solos in Part II.
In so many recordings, the accompaniment behind the baritone and bass-baritone solos sounds slack and somewhat unprepared. It sometimes sounds as though the conductor is rather embarrassed by the writing, or that those passages simply weren't rehearsed enough (Bernstein was excellent in these passages). But again, I think it's because of Davis' experience in handling Berlioz's often times odd accompaniments behind his vocal soloists, Davis just sounds so comfortable here.
Unfortunately, Part II also exposes the one major flaw of Davis' M8 recording, and that's that the vocal soloists are often times too far forward in the recording's perspective. As some of you know, this gets rather uncomfortable in the Three Penitent Women passage. There are a couple of larger-than-life mezzos that are a bit tough to take. But on the plus side, the Tolzer Boys Choir is excellent, and tenor Ben Heppner was at the top of his game here. Let's take another passage.
Listen to the orchestral interlude for harps, chamber organ (harmonium), violins and - later on - woodwinds. There's nothing remarkable about this passage at first, as the harps are really a tad too distant. But again, listen to the choral work as this passages develops, leading up to those Penitent Women.
OK, I know those Penitent Women are hard to take. But given the over-miking employed (I think they may have been amplified in the performance!), Davis was wise to choose slow tempi to go along with them. If you can get past those singers (I know, it's tough!), the accompaniment behind them is quite lovely. That's all for now, I'll add more later.
To sight another example, listen to the brief trumpet solo after Ben Heppner's excellent job on "Blicket auf". There's some real phrasing that happens there. Granted, the end of "blicket auf" could use a bit more tam-tam, but Davis saves the tam-tam for the end of the symphony, as any of you who've heard this recording can attest. And while Davis could stand to place a tad more space between each of those simultaneous tam-tam/cymbal strokes, he at least gives us a real bass drum crescendo on the final chord (Zinman out does him and everyone else for that, though).
Best of all - and the most thrilling moment in ANY Mahler 8 - is how Davis hangs on to that very last "hinan" in the symphony. Unbelievable. No one else comes close.
Oh; by the way, I'm not a sycophant of conductors in general - I view them as a necessary evil - but the excellent series of recordings that Colin Davis made with the Dresden Staatskapelle are going to bundled and released in a box by Profil. I'm definitely getting that.
