Your updated favorite M9 list

[bluesbreaker]

"Agreed.  What on earth was he thinking?  Just as the music is really spinning out of control, he does a big ritard.  Ugh! "

Maybe he wanted to tell the audience that everything is under control, so everything is OK?

[Leo K]

This afternoon I revisted the live de Waart/SFSO/M9 broadcast from 1984. 

Timings:

27:28
15:54
12:45
24:45

The recording sounds really good for a broadcast...but there is a limited dynamic range.

This is one of those performances that grow is stature over many listens.  At first this sounds like a very "removed" interpetation, but actually it is quite envolved, and this is especially realized once we arrive at de Waart's treatment of the finale.  This is a very special reading, special in a sense of de Waart's courage to stay clear from unnesessary exaggeration.  Actually, this unexaggerated quality is his view of the whole work, but I wasn't clear on this until I heard the Adagio.  The details of the score, carefully executed and played, provide all the "action" and feeling of forward momentium that is needed...no energy is wasted.  De Waart's focus keeps this M9 quite electric.  The horn lines, for example, are well heard in the climaxes in the 1st movement.  And in the 1st movement the dynamics of the timpani are carefully thought out.

There is "focused" force at play during the climaxes of each movement, a control that encourages the tension and provides good contrast with the quieter moments without getting overly "wild" as I already mentioned.  The "quieter" moments are quite zen-like and objective, but highly charged as the focus on tempo and color remain constant...a tension more subtle than the "big" climaxes but still there, as heard on repeated listenings.  A kind of fulfilling balance is achieved with the details in the score and the relation of tempos between movements.  This is a very well thought out and carefully considered performance.

His straightforward way with the score brings a kind of "innocence" that reminds me of the M4, and reminds me that Mahler once mentioned the M4 while describing the M9 to Bruno Walter.  This performance is kind of like a sequel to M4.  Perhaps it is the radiant quality of the playing that makes me feel this, or the tempo choices...I'm not sure, but perception is a mysterious quality.  Another may hear something totally different. 

I like how de Waart's Adagio sounds fragile, gentle, and spiritually complete.  It really makes sense it light of what had happened previously in the performance. It also really ties up the performance and there is a feeling of rightness, or completeness. 


A very fine M9 and now I see why John highly values this broadcast.

--Leo

[John Kim]

Leo,

I am glad you revisited this performance and now give it a very high rating. To me, it was the playing of SFSO that got me hooked immediately. Such a perfect balance, such idiomatic playing from an orchestra not well known for Mahler! The whole performance sounds as if they had been playing Mahler for decades. Plus, de Waart's reading reminded me of Ozawa which I admired so much, albeit de Waart has a slightly better sense of architecture and flow. As you said, nothing is wasted here but nothing is wanting either. And yet, there is this feeling of "fullness" over the entire course of the music making.  It's that good.

John,

[Leo K]

Yes, there is nothing wanting either, it's a deep intepretation and I should mention that there are moments when de Waart really surprises, as in the second movement, where near the end a rare "exaggeration", or a sarcastic nastiness appears that wasn't hinted at earlier.

The first movement climaxes are devasting in their directness, and the bells after the final climax are really prominant and resonant, as if there had been a change of heart for the better (I associate that motif with a beating heart), or a light appears after darkness.  There are many instances of enjoyable detail like this.

 
--Leo

[Jeff Wozniak]

I love the Bernstein 9ths, along with the Chailly and the Klemperer.  However, this CD, which is new to me, is climbing the ladder quickly.

[stillivor]

  Tjhat's synchronicity for you. I've been playing the Ancerl this evening. (The original Supraphon boxed set of LPs.)  Easy to see why it's rated highly.

  In the BBc radio 3 Building a Library a few months ago (that I reported at the time here), where many currently available M9s were compared, Ancerl's was in the top few at the last.

  he's sharp, distinctive, fresh, as Czech performers so often are. It's an achievement.

  I've been playing mixed cycles lately. Next will be work-by-work blizzards.


    Ivor

[bluesbreaker]

I would like to take a chance of asking you about a recording I saw. Yesterday I saw a live M9 by Barshai and an orchestra from Moscow, and the label is BIS. I scanned through the first movement and sounds great to me, and so I am preeparing to pick this up. What's your opinion about this recording?

[John Kim]

Barshai M9th? Yes, I have it too. A mediocre to good performance at best. That's all I can say.

John,