MAHLER: Symphony No. 4 in G – Christiane Oelze, soprano/ Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne/ Markus Stenz, conductor – Oehms multichannel SACD 649, 54:50 [Distr. by Naxos] ****:
This is a conductor and orchestra that I was not familiar with, but they are certainly attuned to the Mahler idiom and offer that rustic sort of sound that the New York Philharmonic is so good at, not too suave like Vienna, and not too sloppy like the BBC Symphony from the early seventies, but instead an on-the-edge rambunctious feeling that suits the music very well. Conductors that normally shy away from Mahler sometimes find refuge in the Fourth Symphony because of its very un-Mahlerian components, a chamber scenario that mixes in with accompanied song, concertante-like passages and programmatic intensity that only reveals itself in the last movement, so it is important that everything leads to that point in time.
I think that Stenz basically accomplishes this even though this is one of the more pulled around versions I have heard. He is prone to taking passages and really putting them under the microscope, almost detaching the musical context from the one before and after. Normally this would be an extreme detriment to holding the piece together, but somehow he makes it work. The beginning is slower than even Gergiev, almost to the point of collapse, but if you stick with it Stenz proves that it is only a prelude to better things. I must say that Christiane Oelze is about perfect in this role, suitably childlike without being a child, and singing with a quiet delicacy that compliments Stenz’s more gregarious outbursts.
I still prefer Haitink and the Concertgebouw for recent SACD releases, but this one has a lot to offer and proves illuminating on a lot of different fronts. Sound is vibrant and well-spaced, the surround technology giving more than just token support to the rear speakers.
— Steven Ritter
