Mahler: Symphonie No. 2 in C minor 'Resurrection' Blu-ray Review
In Mahler's own words, listeners of his Second Symphony will be "battered to the ground with clubs and then lifted to the heights on angels' wings." Forewarned is forearmed.
Gustav Mahler was a composer obsessed with death. Whether this came from some sort of intrinsic psychological makeup or was the result of tragedy intruding into his life is anyone's guess, but there is no other composer of major stature who devoted so many works to explorations of mortality and the afterlife. These musical investigations can be quite explicit, as in Kindertotenlieder, or a bit more subtle, as in the fading notes of the ninth, which seem to echo Mahler's closing text in Das Abschied, utilized in Das Lied von der Erde, namely "ewig, ewig, ewig" (ever, ever, ever). If in Das Lied the phrase hints at spring and rebirth, in the Ninth it seems to portend the strange finality of eternity, an existence (if it may be termed that) beyond time and space. Mahler was famously a bit conflicted about his conversion to Catholicism, which came rather later than the Second ("Resurrection") Symphony, a religious choice of convenience, as it were, made largely to further his conducting ambitions but one which colored his guilt complex with heavy shades of black. The fact that he was ruminating about such an ostensibly Christian image as resurrection years before his ultimate conversion shows that Mahler's quest for spiritual answers wasn't confined to any one religion. (In fact, though lesser known than the Christian iteration, Jews themselves have a long tradition of believing in an afterlife, and Mahler's fascination with Eastern sects, notably Buddhism, no doubt filled his mind with images of karma and reincarnation).
"I belong nowhere," Mahler famously observed with regard to his religious proclivities after his conversion and yet that isolated spirit is fully on display in one of his most gargantuan yet eloquent pieces of symphonic writing, The Resurrection. Has any other composer spent such a tortuous journey getting from a minor key (C minor) to its relative major (Eb major)? Mahler was never one to shortchange his manifold ideas with easy formulae, and the Second Symphony is a marvel of large scale architecture, one which moves from the almost satirically biting edge of the funereal first movement to the elegiac strains of the choral finale, a finale reached only in an unusual (for classical symphonies, anyway) fifth movement.
Gustav Mahler
It may seem odd to modern ears who have grown accustomed to Mahler's sound world to realize that the composer's early attempts to get people to understand the Second Symphony fell on, to coin an apt phrase, deaf ears. Mahler had hoped that Hans von Bülow would be to him what he had lately become for Brahms, a champion and mentor. Instead, when Mahler first played the opening movement of the Second, the Todtenfeier (Funeral March), von Bülow let loose with a withering retort which has become legend: "If what I have heard is music, I understand nothing about music." The famed writer and conductor, who had conducted the premiere of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde before going over to the Brahms camp, then rather caustically added that the Todtenfeier made Tristan sound like a Haydn symphony. Of course it's hyperbole, but it's also patently silly, as Mahler, as expressive and emotional as he could be, remained resolutely within tonal bounds, albeit bounds often stretched to the breaking point. Tristan, of course, is a morass of shifting harmonies and phrases which refuse to cadence in anything approaching a "normal" way. I for one have always thought it's actually the emotional underpinning of Mahler's music, rather than the music itself, which has often stood in the way of instant acceptance and understanding, and I personally feel it had a lot to do with von Bülow's patently ridiculous assessment. If one takes into account the fact that von Bülow was becoming less enamored of the extended tonal worlds which Wagner was exploiting, and was finding refuge in the relatively restrained and more classically formal writing of Brahms, his reaction to the hyperbolically emotional world of Mahler becomes at least partially more understandable, if not ultimately justifiable.
My hunch is the name Oleg Caetani would not jump to the head of anyone's list of renowned Mahler conductors, and yet he does a mostly admirable job of marshalling the huge forces necessary to bring Mahler's Second to life. Leading the apparently somewhat provincial group called the Robert Schumann Philharmonic, an ensemble based in the state of Chemnitz and about whom there is precious little information. Their playing on this recording is certainly competent, if lacking in the caustic bite which is necessary for this Symphony's more virulent moments. Caetani and the Philharmonic do very good work in the Symphony's more lyrical sections, and while the opening Funeral March bounces along with verve and a certain menace, it lacks the haunting qualities of, say, the Walter versions or even Bernstein's, at least in its opening gambit. To Caetani's credit, as the movement, and indeed the Symphony as a whole, move along, an irrevocable momentum is achieved and the emotional dividend is appreciable as a result. Caetani lacks the emotional approach of Walter and Bernstein, to be sure, but that reserve actually offers a nicely measured interpretation that helps to control Mahler's sometimes overweening musical temperament.
Though Surround Records has not provided very much in terms of liner notes or even musician credits, I must assume this is the same recording that Caetani made for Arts Music, and that the singers are therefore alto Monika Straube and soprano Helene Bernardy. The singing here is perhaps a bit too lascivious at times, but tone and timbre are assured and confident and the choral work is largely outstanding. Caetani in fact really does extraordinary work throughout the final movement, bringing just the right touch of emotional nuance to the piece while never relegating the overall structure to second place status. The Second Symphony is rather unique in the demands it makes upon conductors, and while Caetani may indeed not be the most famous Mahler conductor out there, this effort proves he is certainly one of the most capable.
For such an overpowering piece as the Resurrection, this DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 repurposing is an amazingly transparent recording, with inner lines completely unobstructed from a sonic standpoint. From the martial strains of the opening movement to the lovely choral finale, both the performance and the recording are unusually good. I was repeatedly struck by the warmth of the brass, so often too brittle in Mahler recordings. It's darkly burnished here, with just the right amount of bite to cut through the strings and reeds. The orchestra (and chorus) fill the front channels with appropriate directionality, and the surrounds offer a nice recreation of hall ambience. Though this is a relatively old source recording, circa 1999, there are no signs of aging in this repurposed 7.1 Blu-ray. Fidelity is sharp as a tack and dynamic range is unusually expressive and full bodied.
There's probably no better piece to experience what surround systems can offer in an orchestral setting than this huge piece of Mahler's. You may be unsure given the relatively low profile of this conductor and orchestra, but fear not: this is an assured and largely very successful performance nicely balanced between architectural formalism and emotional abundance. The DTS-HD MA 7.1 mix is brilliantly utilized to highlight the goosebump factor in Mahler's unpredictable flights of orchestral fancy. Though Mahler purists may still prefer the interpretation of Walter or Bernstein, this Caetani effort is commendable and offers a recording of unusual clarity to help bolster its reputation.
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