Rattle is apparently making a second complete Mahler cycle. The first, made with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, is readily available as a boxed set and download. During his tenure in Berlin, he recorded several symphonies (Nos. 2 and 9 on Warner Classics and Nos. 6-8 on the orchestra’s own label, available in its opulent boxed set, download and streaming). This series from Bavaria had already included Symphonies Nos. 6 and 9, as well as Das Lied (all on BR Klassik). In 2022, I wrote a positive review of their ninth, though I suggested it is less emotionally engaging than his earlier Berlin and Birmingham recordings. This latest release raises similar concerns.
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First, the positives. This is the finest engineering of Rattle’s three recorded readings. The Birmingham performance, recorded live at The Maltings Concert Hall in Snape has a constricted dynamic range and lacks front to back perspective. The playing is less together than Rattle’s Birmingham studio recordings. No such issue affects the Berlin performance, and the recorded sound is better, but beefy: lower lines sometimes muddy, and the Berlin concert hall does not enhance the orchestral sound. And even though Rattle’s tempi are a bit quicker, in Berlin the performance sometimes feels sluggish.
This new recording has a wide and ample soundstage, allowing for a spectacular dynamic range and sound that blooms, even in the loudest climaxes. There is an enviable clarity and warmth to the orchestral sound. The Bavarian RSO was steeped in this repertoire under previous Music Directors Kubelik and Jansons; in this new series with Rattle, they surmount every technical challenge with disarming ease, offering warm, rich, and always malleable sound. Wind solos are always characterful, complimented by ensemble playing of unanimous articulation and careful balance.
Occasionally, the horns could have greater presence, but the brilliance of the trumpets (especially in the final movement’s Coda, when the players must surely be feeling tired) is remarkable. Moreover, they allow Rattle to utilize a generous amount of rubato. Yet this rubato sometimes weakens the sense of long line, as well as a lessening of energy.
Rattle’s first movement tempos in the first movement are virtually identical in Bavaria and Berlin. Again, the opening has a brooding atmosphere but feels sluggish – since this happens in both reading it must be purposeful, but it proves unconvincing. Tennstedt and Bernstein are similarly slow, yet both create a sure sense of dread. When the development moves to the ethereal mountain, the gorgeous string playing of the Bavarians never finds the rhapsodic ecstasy of Bernstein’s two recordings (Sony and DG) or Abbado’s Berlin performance (DG). The coda’s victorious music has plenty of power but feels too easily won.
The inner movements all feature playing of sophistication, but tempos are an issue. The first Nachtmusik (movement 2) comes in a 14’28”, over a minute faster than Abbado/Berlin, Kubelik/Bavarian RSO (second live recording) and Vänska/Minnesota. Each of those readings uses the extra time to bring the differing moods (marches, dances, nocturnal tone pictures) into sharp relief. The playing is brilliant, but characterization is more generalized.
The same holds true of the Scherzo – this is horror house music, grim and threatening. The playing has character, but the darker, uglier elements seem sanitized, as if we are watching the Disney version of a Grimm fairy tale. I find the fourth movement more emotionally engaging, though the guitar and mandolin are too integrated into the overall sound for my taste, and when compared to the readings by Abbado and Bernstein, Rattle’s 11’52” feels a bit impatient.
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The quick-silver, almost schizophrenic changes of the Finale have led more than one conductor to try and soften those jarring shifts in style and mood. Rattle elicits tremendous playing from the orchestra, but rubato is often used to smooth over the abrupt, unprepared changes in the music. In his Birmingham recording he revels in the disruptiveness, so this is an interpretational shift on his part, one I find less true to the spirit and purpose of Mahler’s music. But the passion and exactness of the playing kept me fully engaged, and the percussion is fabulous, most especially in the Coda.
I love the strange, disjointed nature of this music and therefore prefer performances that highlight those aspects. But for readers who find those same qualities off-putting, Rattle’s reading might be just the ticket.
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Album Details |
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|---|---|
| Album name | Mahler – symphony No. 7 |
| Label | BR Klassik |
| Catalogue No. | 900225 |
| Amazon Music link | Stream here |
| Apple Music link | Stream here |
| Artists | Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Bavarian Radio symphony Orchestra), Sir Simon Rattle |
