COMPOSERS: Mahler
LABELS: Channel
ALBUM TITLE: Mahler
WORKS: Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection)
PERFORMER: Lisa Milne (soprano), Birgi Remmert (mezzo-soprano); Hungarian Radio Choir; Budapest Festival Orchestra/Iván Fisher
CATALOGUE NO: CCS SA 23506
The earth truly shakes at the
beginning of this Mahler
Resurrection, albeit with firmness
and breadth from an authoritative
Iván Fischer. The promise of this
start is realised in a grand finale
which finds the splendid Budapest
Festival Orchestra as vocal in its
chorales and pleas for belief as the
excellent chorus and soloists. That
means that after Boulez’s neutral trip
to Nirvana (reviewed in the Proms
2006 issue), Mahler’s theatricality
is once again centre-stage. Even
so Fischer, who can be a febrile
interpreter, rarely pushes too hard.
The orchestral sound is lean but
not undernourished, allowing for
even balance between contesting
lines – outstanding in the funereal
coda of the first movement – and a
clearer than usual interplay between
gleaming upper brass and woodwind.
Instrumental timbres remain
distinct even in the loudest passages,
thanks partly to the superb acoustics
of Budapest’s Palace of Arts. Supreme
in the extra dimension of the SACD format, they make ample space for offstage brass, starting earlier than usual with angelic trumpets in the middle distance behind an unglamourised Birgit Remmert in 'O roschon rot'. Seekers after a new Mahler 2 on CD are surely going to place sound at a premium, and it certainly has the the edge over an even more fluid and expressive performance from Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (recorded in an equally fine hall, but sadly engineers couldn't leave it to speak for itself). That's an interpretation still worth watching on DVD. On CD, Bernstein reaches out for even more, but admirers of this orchestra with a voice of its own will respect the freshness it brings to a famiiar score. David Nice