First review of the day: Zander's Mahler Fourth

Mahler: Symphony no 4


Camilla Tilling (soprano)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Benjamin Zander

Benchmark recording: Szell/Cleveland (Sony)



Among all of Mahler's symphonies, the Fourth is described as his most accessible symphony. It tends to dwell onto more neoclassical side, and this symphony is often compared to Ninth Symphony in Shostakovich's cycle. Why? This symphony is least troubled of all his symphonies, like the Ninth symphony of Shostakovich a breath of fresh air from political nihislism and doom of previous symphonies. Yet there are still lingering doubts and shadowy figures typical of Mahler schizophrenia in the this work.

There seems to be alternating sequences for the first movement. One, a neo-classical tribute to Haydn and another sequence which is similar, but more sinister in fashion. As I understand from Tony Duggan's analysis, it is an examination of nature in childish perception. We have to understand this symphony is composed over a "leftover" from the Third Symphony, "Das Himmlische Leben" or The Heavenly Life. This song, taken from Mahler's Wunderhorn cycle talks of a life in Heaven, where there's plenty of food in Heaven where there's vegetables of every shapes and kind, fishes will swim up to your lap when you're hungry and there's not even objection at slaughters of heavenly sheeps. "Das Himmlische Leben" is probably a sequel to another song in Wunderhorn cycle where the little boy who longs for bread died as soon as his mother finished baking it. I would interpret it as an antithesis from the "death" themes which fascinates and haunt Mahler at the same time.

I had witnessed three recordings beforehand, Rafael Kubelik and his Bavarian Band from DG, Lorin Maazel teamed with stunning Kathleen Battle with Vienna Philharmonic and Bernstein's DG account with Concertgebouw if I'm not mistaken with a boy soprano. I am sorry to say I didn't exactly warmed up to either recordings as they sound rather the least interesting of Mahler's symphonies. That is until I borrowed this recording from my friend, Hock Doong.

I attended Benjamin Zander's talk on Mahler two years ago when he was invited to conduct Mahler Ninth for Malaysian Philharmonic. I asked him who is his favorite Mahler conductor and after some hesitation, he replied Jascha Horenstein. It is no wonder Horenstein's traits are present on the work, the minute details of the score exposed like a surgeon's unfliching exposure of body parts in an autopsy. Some complain of the lack of architecture of cohorence compared to two recordings I mentioned above. The previous recordings I listened to had continuous momentum of a Bruckner symphony, yet I feel as if I was merely strolling through the work. Observing animals in a national park compared to watching them on Discovery channel has big differences and Zander's approach is more towards the latter. Perhaps the only flaw Zander possessed in this recording is some excessive stretching of rubato and ritartando. The slowing down after the each "jingle bells" call on flute and bells seemed to stretched a bit too far, but fortunately not excessive to a point of self-indulgence.

The Scherzo is unique in sense that I challenge to see if there's any recording that could top that. Christopher Warren-Green's violin solo sounds very puppet-like and the whole movement sounds like a narration from a Grimm fairy tales book. Not surprising if this is the most chilling account here.

Zander's third movement mirrors that of Third Symphony's Adagio and I am reminded of Horenstein's spiritually moving account. Here it seems no different either. When the big climax came where the gates of Heaven is revealed, you could really feel you've gained first glimpse of an awesome vista. This, in my opinion, is a childish astonishment and discovery of glimpse of Heaven. Wonderful harp glissando here and wonderful thumping from the timpani, the movement gradually subsides peacefully to the last movement. Camillia Tilling is the perfect soprano here. Zander avoided the pitfalls that maybe a difficult criteria for choosing a singer here. Kubelik's Elsie Morrison is too mature and Bernstein...for the love of God Mahler did mention to avoid boy sopranos didn't he? Zander was guilty similarly in a performance sometime ago, but thank IPU he did not.

There will be always debates whether which soprano is the most perfect singer for Das Himmlische Leben or whether the violin solo in Scherzo is menacing or too over the top. I have yet to listen to George Szell or Paul Kletzki's recordings respectively. My friend Hock Doong should have the Szell recording and after I finish listening, the review will be up. The bonus lecture CD seemed to be least interesting despite his insightful lecture on Wunderhorn elements of this symphony. This is my personal choice for THE recording of Mahler's Fourth um, period.

Technical: 9
Interpretation: 9
Recording: 9

For my criteria of reviews, Technical(orchestral/soloist playing) and Interpretation (vision) are two intriguing points here. Some critics are notorious for shifting blame entirely towards the conductor for lapses of playing, particularly Jascha Horenstein. It is one thing to be Simon Cowell, but we're talking about individuals controlling at least 30-40 players here! We do not even know if the maestro had time rehearsing the work properly. Karl Bohm's Ein Heldenleben is example of a great intrepretation of what seemed to be the most narcisstic work of Richard Strauss. The playing compared with Rudolph Kempe of the same orchestra (Dresden) seemed sloppy, but Kempe's vision is too straightfoward and sterile. I don't need to mention there are too many "perfect" orchestral recordings today that are forgettable in their vision.

In my list, there's very, very few recordings that merits perfect 10/10/10 and most obvious would be Callas/Di Stefano/De Sabata recording of Tosca. I am also fond of Reiner/CSO recording of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" and the Pines+Fountains of Rome by Respighi which has perfect vision, chilling orchestral playing and BEST recording remastering (how many stereo recordings of late 50s can sound that good?). Reviews will be posted as well. Keep reading!