GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 8; Adagio from unfinished Symphony No. 10 – Soloists: Erin Wall, Elza van den Heever, Laura Claycomb, Katrina Karneus, Yvonne Naef, Anthony Dean Griffey, Quinn Kelsey, James Morris/San Francisco Symphony Chorus/Pacific BoyChoir/ San Francisco Girls Chorus/San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas – San Francisco Symphony multichannel SACDs (2) 821936-0021-2, 60:52 [www.sfsymphony.org] (Distr. by Harmonia mundi) ***** [Release date: August 25, 09]:
The title “Symphony of a Thousand” was not a publicity gimmick for Mahler’s biggest public statement. It was an honest totaling-up of the over 1000 performers constituting the huge symphony orchestra, gigantic chorus and many soloists involved in the work’s premiere in 1910. I can’t imagine the Eighth is the personal favorite of the Mahler symphonies for very many listeners, but it certainly makes its mark. He began planning the work with an impressive setting of a Christian Pentecostal hymn from the eighth century, Veni, creator spiritus. This provides Part 1 of the two-part symphony. Later Mahler saw its unquestioning faith as a fitting introduction to the final part of Goethe’s re-telling of the Faust story in Faust II and in Part 2 of his symphony: not the damnation but the salvation of Faust.
The two parts of the Eighth may seem like a wild and disjunctive combination, but to Mahler they shared a common philosophy – the first summoning the creative spirit, and the second showing the link between creativity and the magnetism of the eternal feminine. One critic said if Freud himself had been more musical, he would have known what Mahler was trying to say. Neither Faust or Gretchen have roles in the expansive Part 2; the characters include various holy hermits, various angels, blessed boys, penitent women, mystical choruses, etc. – all floating about and ascending to an ecstatic heaven. The erotic element of creativity is part the philosophy, but it was also affecting the composer at this time because his flighty wife Alma was having an affair with architect Walter Gropius and he was afraid of losing her.
The final section of the symphony is an audiophile wet dream if there ever was one. The ever-increasing buildup of the various choruses and immense orchestral perorations rise to heights of both frequency and dynamic level that cannot be ignored. Even if a golden-eared one might find the preceding material of the symphony not to his/her taste, there is no denying that the concluding minutes marshall an affirming mountain of sound that levels everything before it and stresses the capabilities of any audio system.
Comparison of hi-res versions of the Eighth with any of the standard CDs demonstrates clearly that Mahler was made for hi-res surround reproduction. (This release is part of the superb continuing San Francisco Symphony Mahler series; it is more than understandable why this coming near the end of the series rather than at the beginning.) Even the highly dramatic Bernstein performances on DGG and Sony Classical turn to opaque musical mush when all the soloists, choruses and orchestral forces are unleashed in the final minutes of the symphony. I also compared the excellent 2003 DVD-Audio release on Decca with Riccardo Chailly conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and numerous soloists and choruses. (A video of a rehearsal of it is available on YouTube.) It has the advantage of being all on a single disc, plus having an interesting slide show of paintings illustrating the various portions of the work. (Also the disadvantage of having to hook up your player to a display in order to navigate the DVD-A disc.) I find the concluding portions of the Eighth to be even more awe-inspiring in the Chailly DVD-A version than the new Michael Tilson Thomas SACD. There is more bass end support and more pipe organ – the latter almost unheard on the new disc. However the choruses are easier to understand on the SF Symphony disc, and their placement across the wide soundstage is more palpable and realistic. Also, the acoustics of Davis Hall in SF come across somewhat better on the SACD than do those of the Concertgebouw on the DVD-A.
The nearly half-hour-length Adagio from the Tenth serves as a sort of overture to the Eighth on this disc. While there are performing versions available of all five movements of the complete re-imagined symphony, most conductors avoid them and stick with the only completed movement, the Adagio, as does MTT. This is a strongly introspective work of tragic emotional communication. Beautifully played, it is captured in excellent surround sound. However, George Szell’s version on a two-channel Sony Classical SACD probably wrings even more pathos out of the piece than does MTT.
– John Sunier
