XPost: rec.music.classical.recordings
On Wed, 10 Jul 2024 9:49:59 +0000, Roland van Gaalen wrote:
On 10/07/2024 05:27, Rachmaninoff wrote:
On Sun, 7 Jul 2024 17:50:28 +0000, Roland van Gaalen wrote:
Mahler Symphonie Nr. 5
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Rafael Kubelik
Live recording (12 June 1981)
Audite 95.465
How about Kubelik/Concertgebouw 1951 on Tahra?
I like it!
On 22 March 2002 I wrote:
<< On 23 February 2002 I wrote:
Mahler's Fifth Symphony was performed fairly often by
the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Willem Mengelberg
during the 1920s and 1930s; the last
performance was in the 1938/39 season.
This is not quite correct -- I discovered recently that Mengelberg
actually never conducted this piece (apart from the Adagietto) after
1930; there were performances in 1933 (4), 1934 (3), 1936 (2) and 1939
(2), but those were all under Bruno Walter.
Walter's interpretation was apparently rather different from
Mengelberg's:
"Walter was timed at one hour and five minutes, Mengelberg at one hour
and eighteen minutes [...] Mengelberg appeared to have the trumpet
soloist, D. Speets, make a drama of every single note in the
'Trauermarsch'. Walter let Speets's successor, Marinus Komst sr, play
less ominously and with more lyricism. While in Mengelberg's
interpretation every detail was scrutinized, with devotion to every note
of the Adagietto, Walter interpreted the symphony in an 'enthusiastic fresco-like style', and the fourth movement with a 'sensitively sung lyricism'."
Moreover
"Rafael Kubelik's performance was in line with Bruno Walter's and had
little to do with Mengelberg's impressive, colossal, tragic and
elaborated performances"
[quotations from: "New Sounds, New Century / Mahler's Fifth Symphony and
the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, ed. D. Mitchell (1997); the inner
quotations
are from a certain "Critical Edition"]
The above comparisons are from a contemporary perspective -- I think
that the Kubelik recording sounds wonderfully old-fashioned and fits in nicely with the orchestra's recorded legacy from the first half of the previous century.
Unfortunately, apart from the Adagietto (1926) no recordings were
made. In the years after Mengelberg until 1955, only Rafael Kubelik conducted the piece, and a wonderful live recording from 1951 has
just
been released by Tahra (ref.: TAH 419; I paid EUR 16 at Kuijper
Klassiek here in Amsterdam).
The first movements unmistakably reveal the idiosyncratic sound and
style of the pre-war and early post-war Concertgebouw Orchestra --
lively and expressive, but neither sentimental nor pompous. Although
Kubelik begins the
adagietto (9'24") without any of Mengelberg's trademark portamenti,
he
quickly proceeds towards a freely flowing interpretation, now and
then
reminiscent of the 1926 recording, which is continued throughout the finale.
The sound is above average in comparison with other live recordings
from the [early (RvG 10-7-2024)] 1950s. [Read: so-so.RvG 10-7-2024)]
By the way, I have modified my list of favorite recordings
accordingly:
#1: Walter / New York Philharmonic (live, 1950)
#2: Klemperer / Concertgebouw (live, 1951)
#3: Haitink / Berlin Philharmonic
#4: Mengelberg / Concertgebouw (live, 1939)
#5: Kubelik / Concertgebouw (live, 1951)
#6: Boulez / Vienna Philharmonic
#7: Klemperer / Philharmonia
#8: ?
#9: Walter / Vienna Philharmonic (1938)
Das Lied von der Erde: Schuricht / Concertgebouw (live, 1939)
--
--
Roland van Gaalen
The Netherlands
Thanks for that. I love all of those 1930s to early 1950s Concertgebouw recordings for whatever hint they might give to Mengelberg's
interpretations and style.
Is there a Mahler 5 that you are familiar with that seems to fit the description of the way Mengelberg conducted it?
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