M5 in Philadelphia

[waderice]

Today, I heard a live performance of M5 by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.  It seemed that his performance took longer than most performances do of the work.  For the benefit of those who like to time the Adagietto, it clocked in at 10:36.  The movements I liked best were the second, third and fifth.  Glorious playing by the third movement horn soloist.  The performance ought to be heard on a delayed basis in a few weeks on-line at www.wrti.org Public Radio, so if anyone is interested in hearing the performance, start checking their web site at about that time to determine when it can be heard.  Philadelphia Orchestra performances on WRTI generally start at 1:00 Sunday afternoons, Eastern time.

For some reason or another, since it was known that Mahler made frequent revisions to this work, I heard some unfamiliar orchestration of particular instrumental parts in the second movement.  Are there various versions of M5 floating around out there, and is it possible that if you were to travel from one city to another to hear performances of the work, might you hear different versions?

Wade

[James Meckley]

Are there various versions of M5 floating around out there, and is it possible that if you were to travel from one city to another to hear performances of the work, might you hear different versions?

There have been three critical editions of Mahler 5, all published by Peters: the 1964 edited by Erwin Ratz, the 1988 edited by Karl Heinz Füssl, and the 2002 edited by Reinhold Kubik. In addition, there's the edition published by Kalmus which represents the first published version without any of Mahler's later changes. It's hard to imagine the Philadelphia Orchestra performing anything other that one of the most recent critical editions.

I presently own only the 2002 Kubik, so I'm not in a position to comment on differences among the four editions.

James

[akiralx]

Sounds very fine - I have a lot of time for Noseda and heard him quite often (though not in Mahler) when I lived in the UK, when he was head of the BBC PO. 

Very energetic conductor - it was often exhausting watching him, but I found his performances energetic and compelling.