Five stars from me should tell you lot considering how critical I have been of the RCO Live series in general. Not the sound, mind you, which is almost always far more glorious that the series equivalent posed by the “LSO Live” recordings, which are boxier and more dry. No, I am afraid it’s Mariss Jansons; a conductor that leaves me stale in all but the fewest number of his recordings, and to me doesn’t seem capable of pulling the best sound out of this remarkable orchestra. His Sibelius Second (lauded on this website) struck me as cold and disjointed, and the orchestra wasn’t playing well either.
So now Bernard Haitink, honorary leader for life, returns to the podium for a little Mahler music-making, a conductor that has created nothing but controversy with Mahler his whole life. His set with this same orchestra, and specifically soprano Elly Ameling in the last movement in this symphony, is generally regarded as fine but not anywhere near definitive. His later effort with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sylvia McNair is much the same stripe, perfectly acceptable but devoid of the interpretative angst (some might say beauties) of other conductors like Abbado or Bernstein.
This is supposedly Mahler’s “sunniest” symphony (an appellation also applied to Brahms’s second which I have never found sunny at all), but hearing the grotesqueries of the second movement with the devil playing his fiddle, one must wonder if the joke is not on us after all. Mahler said it contained things that were “good and cheery” but also “eerie and alarming”, so I don’t think we can put it in the purely “feel good” category. That being said, Haitink has often been accused of a very sanitized approach to the composer, too relaxed, too humdrum, and basically not interested in the more profound things found in the score, and evidently only accessible when a conductor of proper temperament challenges us to observe the proprieties of hidden Mahler-mining.
This reading has already suffered such misguided scrutiny on some amateur websites and retail selling grounds, and they could not be more wrong. Haitink has given us a fantastic reading of probing insight and simply splendiferous audio majesty. The lines are as clean and clear as I have ever heard them, and Haitink approaches this work with all the skill of a seasoned glass-blower. The delicacy of Mahler’s more intimate sections are done with ballet-like grace and beauty, yet we are in no way short-changed with soporific or uninteresting playing. The bolder sections are given great weight and bold significance, and rarely will you hear an orchestra sing with such sweetness of tone as the Concertgebouw does here.
The all-important last movement, which retrospectively sets the tone for the entire work, is crucial, and one of the important considerations in any recording is the soprano soloist. Judith Raskin hits the perfect tone in Szell’s classic (and maybe still the best) reading from long ago; she must maintain a childlike quality while not sounding like a child, and she renders it perfectly. Laura Claycomb is not bad on the Tilson-Thomas reading with San Francisco, but that one is even more laid back than most Haitink detractors will like, and the sound is better here. Yoel Levi has Frederica Von Stade, and the orchestra is luminous, but I am not convinced that a mezzo-sound is appropriate. Like all Mahler, there is a flavor for every taste. But I must contend that you will not find a more appetizing reading than this one, and from the opening bars I knew it would be something special. SACD is only icing on the cake—this is a performance to live with for a long time, and don’t let yours (or other) preconceptions make you miss a splendid experience.
— Steven Ritter
