Bryn Terfel, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Gustav Mahler, Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker, Andrea Rost, Cheryl Studer, Sylvia McNair, Peter Seiffert - Mahler: Symphonie No.8
Band: Bryn Terfel, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Gustav Mahler, Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker, Andrea Rost, Cheryl Studer, Sylvia McNair, Peter Seiffert Title: Mahler: Symphonie No.8 Rating: Release Date: 13 June, 1995 Media: Audio CD
Tracks: 1: SYMPHONIE NO. 8: Part I - 1 Allegro impetuoso 2: SYMPHONIE NO. 8: Part I - 2 A tempo 3: SYMPHONIE NO. 8: Part I - 3 Etwas drängend 4: SYMPHONIE NO. 8: Part I - 4 Tempo I 5: SYMPHONIE NO. 8: Part I - 5 Sehr fließend 6: SYMPHONIE NO. 8: Part I - 6 Plötzlich sehr breit und leidenschaftlichen 7: SYMPHONIE NO. 8: Part I - 7 Veni, creator spiritus 8: SYMPHONIE NO. 8: Part I - 8 Wieder frisch 9: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 01 Poco Adagio 10: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 02 Più mosso 11: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 03 Wieder langsam 12: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 04 Moderato 13: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 05 Allegro 14: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 06 Allegro deciso 15: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 07 Molto leggiero 16: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 08 Schon etwas langsamer und immer noch mäßiger 17: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 09 Im Angang noch etwas gehalten 18: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 10 Sempre l'istesso tempo 19: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 11 Äußerst langsam 20: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 12 Fließend 21: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 13 Una poenitentium 22: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 14 Unmerklich frischer werden 23: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 15 Sehr Langsam 24: SYMPHONIE NO.8: Part II - 16 Sehr langsam beginnend
Customer Reviews The most impressive in recent years but... Probably the most impressive recording available after Sinopoli's miraculous account.
Compared to some lame performances of 8th released in recent years (Chailly's cool headed account for example), Abbado's account of Mahler 8th is not bad.
In both 1st and 2nd parts, it takes a while until it really heats up, but once it takes off the splendor and sumputuousness of sound is just amazing. Sheer richness of texture and harmony, thanks to excellent recording, really gives the sense of how Mahler tried to be ambitious in composing this symphony. Solists are pretty good too, very passionate but none of the operatic diva non-sense which often spoils so many performances of this symphony. And the magnificent ending with bang.
Everything is fine, but I can not help asking more. Like Resurrection Symphony or Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, Mahler 8th needs something transcendent and something more extreme, to penetrate into higher realm. Horenstein and Solti almost do it. Sinopoli very close. Bernstein falls apart before getting there. Abbado, no. We need to wait yet for a conductor who has capacity to match greatness of this symphony.
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As big as it gets. 8, regardless of who is present in the great hall at the microphones, I think that Mahler just had to outdo every other symphonic composer in the history of music, starting with Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Whenever Ilisten to Gustav Mahler's Symphonie No. And here, we get a five star lineup of performers headlined by Anne Sofie von Otter, Bryn Terfel, Cheryl Studer, and director Claudio Abbado. Oddly, I almost think that this much star power is wasted in this setting, as the vocalist's solos tend to get lost in the oceanic instrumental backgrounds and Himilayean choral accompaniment.
Even so, this is a really nice performance. My shorting it by one star is actually based on the fact that the accompanying piece, the final scene from 'Faust II' is one of the least interesting ways to round out the time on the two CDs. I would have much preferred seeing this talent being applied to 'Das Lied von der Erde' or 'Kindertotenlieder'. That would have made a star-studded performance.
Mahler's 'only opera' very well served by maestro Abbado ... I mean, we have here a performance of Mahler 8 that - to me at least - sounds exactly as it should: deeply concentrated and contemplative, but at the same time appropriately stately-festive. I do believe, or feel, that Mahler's Eighth Symphony is being served well with restraint and thoughtfulness on the conductor's part, like here with maestro Claudio Abbado. A natural-sounding ebb and flow of musical waves. Mahler's Eighth as a Natural Event unfolding as it should . . . I believe that the recorded sound does add to the atmosphere of this performance, as it is a bit tenuous, with instruments sounding somewhat veiled and just a tadd distant, which results in a certain 'softness' in the orchestral sound, but all in all the resulting soundscape is natural and wide enough. At the same time, the sparse, chamber-musical-like passages are rendered wonderfully delicate and sweet, also helped, of course, by Claudio Abbado's sensitive, almost 'lyrical' conducting. Choirs blend with the orchestra in a completely natural way, as well, to my ears, not standing out at all.
And maestro Abbado really knows what the difference between 'p', 'pp' and 'ppp' (and even 'pppp'?) is about, so that in Claudio Abbado's hands this music doesn't sound like just one big surging sea of forte and fortissimo waves of sound as it would in the hands of other conductors. In one word: lovely. It all really grabs my attention - like most of maestro Abbado's Mahler -, from beginning to very end, but especially because of the marvellous dramatic concentration that Claudio Abbado maintains, especially evident in Part II. Take for example the hushed intensity which the final Chorus Mysticus and orchestra maintain for two and a half minutes, only then going louder, magnificently building up to an intense peroration. How astoundingly different from Berlioz' inspiration for the very hushed ending - Gretchen arriving in Heaven - of his La Damnation de Faust: more like Mahler's 'Mater Gloriosa swebt einher' . . .
I simply must point out here, in this recording (because I love it so much) the sweet intensity of phrasing when Mater Gloriosa comes 'soaring in': heart-achingly beautiful how under Claudio Abbado's sensitive conducting the orchestra makes the most of all the little pauses and musical effects here, savouring all of its sweet beauty, without EVER becoming sentimental. Truly astounding!
And the singing could not be bettered as well, I believe. Choruses all sound marvelously grand, but at the same time nicely clear and with crisp articulation. And what a lovely, cheeky boyish sound the Toelzer Knabenchor has! Conveying the complete ease and self-confidence of those who have never been tried by the trials of Life on Earth, but who now nevertheless reside with the angels and in the light of the Creator ;-) At least no distractingly annoying wrong diction of the words here, with these (almost) all-German-speaking choruses, which to me is kind of a distraction in many recordings. And then the Doctor Marianus of Peter Seiffert (on which, for me, hinges much of my appreciation of any whole recording of this symphony as such): I really love his voice and his finely dramatic rendition of the role here. Mr. Seiffert's beautiful, I would say almost lyrical voice conveys, I believe, just the right amount of yearning and longing, and at the same time pressing need necessary . . . Just sweet (like Andrea Rost's Mater Gloriosa)! Well, for the rest, this all-star cast is of course near perfect . . . I guess, with such a beautiful performance by such marvelous artists as these, it just comes down to taste: how could this performance be worth anything less than 'four stars'. You may like a different approach to this flabbergastingly astounding music (take Solti, or Rattle), but this recording still remains one of the best ever, IMHO. .
Bryn Terfel, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Gustav Mahler, Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker, Andrea Rost, Cheryl Studer, Sylvia McNair, Peter Seiffert menu:
