What Mahler began as a long symphonic poem in the style of Liszt eventually coalessed into a huge five-movement symphony with the last a massive choral movement in the style of Beethoven’s Ninth. A complete departure from the composer’s First Symphony, the Second has come to often be the very first work to introduce Mahler’s unique sound-world to new listeners. The opening movement – Mahler suggested its scene was a funeral – has some ties to Wagner and brings in a variant of the Die Irae motif in its musical struggle between will and death. The slow movement is one of the simplest and most beautiful Mahler wrote in any of his symphonies – “a ray of sunlight” – he called it. The short “Urlicht” or Primal Light movement features the contralto singing one of the composer’s most inspired songs of innocent faith. Mahler saw the final movement as the arrival of the Day of Judgement, using a sort of “fate” modality not that different from Tchaikovsky. But it builds to the gloriously stirring conclusion which Mahler called “the Great Roll-Call,” with the two singers floating over the hushed chorus and ending with a tremendous pealing bells and ten sounding horns climax.
Recorded in stereo by Westminster in the same year the stereodisc was launched, this very exciting performance was released on both stereo disc and prerecorded 2-track tape. Of course the tape is far superior sonically, and after HDTT has processed it with Weiss digital software and hardware plus Symposium vibration control gear, and recorded it digitally to the higher-res medium of 96K DVD rather than standard CD – limited to 44.1K/16bit – the final result is about as good as listening to the original tape on the most highly-tweaked pro open reel deck with new heads and the latest electronics. I had at hand two DVD-Rs burned by a friend from the same Westminster prerecorded tape and made a comparison. They were very close, with the HDTT edging ahead on three counts: a higher playback level, a bit less noise, and they was able to squeeze the entire 85-minute symphony onto a single DVD rather than following the “Disc 1 – Disc 2” listing printed on the jewel box rear. (The time limit on a standard CD or SACD is 80 minutes.) HDTT provides a complete note booklet with their reissue, with libretto in this case.
I generally don’t keep multiple versions of selections in my disc library, but some of the great symphony literature seems to be the exception. The Mahler Second is represented by Gilbert Kaplan on DGG (it’s the only symphony he conducts!), Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Abbado. However, this powerful Scherchen performance sometimes bests them all in terms of its sheer intensity. And the sonics are superb in the DVD version. I recommend it!
– John Sunier
