I had my domestic partner out of the house today, so I could thoroughly enjoy listening to a full Mahler symphony. I'm happy to report that Rattle's Berlin Phil. M8 is possibly the best sung M8 since the Kubelik. Both the baritone and bass-baritone solos near the start of Part II are equally well done. Once again, tenor Johan Botha doesn't disappoint. He's possibly the best tenor ever to have taken on M8 - what a loss his passing away has been. This is now his third M8 recording - the other two being the Boulez/DG one, and the one he made in Vienna's Konzerthaus with Bertrand DeBilly conducting (Oehms). But I think he's put to best use on this recording. The children's chorus is particularly good and always audible. The women are fine and nicely balanced throughout the 'Three Penitent Women' section. The build-up and climax of the "Blicket auf" passage is wonderfully done. Equally wonderful, is the passage for high strings, harp and harmonium (chamber organ), located right after the first tenor solo (and not taken too slowly either, a la MTT). The whole thing has a wonderful, 'organic' quality about it.
I'm also happy to say that Rattle's conducting is pretty much spot on throughout the performance - his only eccentricity being the fast tempo he takes near the end of the symphony, just after the unison choirs cut out (Rattle always has to have one gimmick in all of his Mahler performances, for the most part). For all the flack that Rattle has taken over the years, there's one aspect to his conducting I've always admired: Rattle understands that when you employ a lot of unsolicited (not indicated) slow-downs, you need to put in an equal number of speed-ups to balance things out. In that sense, he's like a good Chopin pianist who likes and knows how to use plenty of rubato.
All in all, this had to have been one of the truly great live performances of M8 ever. For me, it certainly blows the Abbado/B.P.O. one right out of the water. If there's any drawback, it's that the dynamic range is a tad limited for a such a huge work. Turn it up too much, and peaks can sound a tiny tad distorted (or under pressure). Also, as is sometimes the criticism of the Berlin Phil., the Philharmonie swallows some of the high frequencies emanating from the players. However, trumpets do cut through where needed. High woodwinds are very good.
As I listened to this, I couldn't help but thinking, "this is as though Bernstein were conducting M8 in Berlin with a really good cast of singers" - the biggest difference being Rattle's unusual but effective treatment of the symphony's closing page. This exceeded my best expectations, and avoided my worry that Rattle might have introduced other eccentricities into the narrative.
Topic: quick report on the full Rattle/B.P.O. M8 (Read 8266 times)