Jonathan Darlington Mahler 5 & 6

[ChrisH]

I was curious if anyone on the board has heard anyone either of these recordings?

http://www.eclassical.com/living-concert-series-mahler-symphony-no-6.html

http://www.eclassical.com/living-concert-series-mahler-symphony-no-5.html


I was about ready to pick up the Inbal Czech Mahler 7 on Exton and stumbled across these Darlington recordings. Inbal and the Czech Philharmonic are pretty good in the M7, I would imagine. Then these Darlington recordings piqued my interest too. Any thoughts?

[barry guerrero]

Darlington/Duisburg are the people who are on my 'Ring w/o Words' type disc, which does include the great Prelude to the Act II (or is it III?) of "Siegfried".

[ChrisH]

Darlington/Duisburg are the people who are on my 'Ring w/o Words' type disc, which does include the great Prelude to the Act II (or is it III?) of "Siegfried".

It's prelude to Act II. I might have to pick this Ring w/o words up too. A cellist did the arrangement. 

[ChrisH]

I decided to pick up both of these recordings. Here are some thoughts on the 5th.

The opening is quite good, and at a pretty quick pace with lots of volume. At 8 bars before rehearsal number 2 the trombones play a nice rhythmic figure. Darlington has them really give us the full 8th rest in the figure, it's very separated and not as connected as you often hear. Every time this figure appears it's played this way, like 10 before rehearsal 7 leading to the 'wild' section. He paces the whole movement very well, the 4 march sections gain a little tempo at each iteration, they grow more powerful as the movement goes on. Darlington shows quite a bit of restraint in the lyric sections nothing overly romanticized. Also very little vibrato in the strings. Violas, cellos and double bass are quite prominent.

The second movement is very strong in the opening. He really lets it all hang out here. It's very vigorous and rthymic. He keeps a pretty quick tempo through out, with very little variation. The kind of push/pull between the violins and viola/cello really come out well. He really seems to build everything heading toward the false climax, backs off then builds to the real climax. He really lets it go here.  I feel like he paced the entire 1st movement and the 2nd to get to this point. He really treats them as one movement.

Darlingtons 3rd movement is much freer in feeling and tempo than the previous two. It sounds like everyone is having fun. He contrasts the the rollicking parts with the more contemplative sections really well. His handling of the waltz sections are very graceful. Great balances among the strings and winds too. I also really liked the weight of the pizzacato section.

The 4th movement is about 8:20 long and played will very little vibrato. It worked for me. Not overly emotional, nor thick.

The last movement is very bright with lots of a momentum. The counterpoint, in all the sections, is very clear and concise. There is a lot of feeling in the playing. The contrast and play between the more vocal sections and the playful sections is really brought out.

I pretty good recording, and somewhat different than most of the recordings I own. It's less heavy handed and drawn out, more direct and straight ahead. Pretty fresh for my ears and quite effective upon first listening.

I'll give some thoughts about the 6th when I get to it.

[ChrisH]

The Darlington Mahler 6 is excellent. It's very much in the middle of say, a Bernstein/Barbirolli and some one like Kondrashin. It's very intense with a very forward tempo; except for the Adagio which may be one of the slowest I've heard. The proportions of the movements seem to work well together. The strings have a great heft to them, they still retain excellent detail. It never gets muddy. The brass, especially the horns are outstanding. The cowbells do suck, quite bad.

This is in A/S order and works pretty well. He takes the scherzo a hair faster than the 1st movement. The finale was very satisfying to me. Big boned, great brass and some pretty good hammer work. It has a good direction to it.

The recorded sound is very good too.

All in all, a damn fine Mahler 6. At least, in my opinion.

[barry guerrero]

Just based on the Ring excerpts disc, I'm not at all surprised that it's good.

[barryguerrero]

Well, it's nearly 2018 and I finally got around to listening to Darlington's M6 at Spotify. I think Vehemence's review is right on the mark in every way. I would only add that this has one of the best 'false victory parade' sections I've yet to encounter (near the end of the finale). This is important because everything in the entire finale leads up to that passage, then the collapse happens. Highly recommended.