Regulars will know that I have shed loads of recordings of the Mahler 2 on my shelves and I've heard it live many times from the likes of Abbado, Haitink, Tennstedt, Jansons and Kaplan etc but I've never heard a performance like this.
As part of their 30th anniversary the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment decided to be very ambitious and mount a performance of this mighty work. Too ambitious? In some ways I fear so: there were fistfuls of cracked and split notes from the horns and an embarrassing fluff from the solo trombone and these marred an otherwise terrific performance. I was sitting in a box overlooking the horns so could hardly miss the fluffs.
Vladimir Jurowski set the work in motion with a tremendous onslaught from the double basses, astonishingly deep and gruff. Those who know Jurowski's LPO recording would have found little to worry about interpretively as it as much the same. The difference lay in the use of 'authentic' instruments. Where this really told was in the woodwind and percussion, both very fine indeed and a big advantage. I don't think I've ever heard such amazing sonics from the woodwind as in the third movement. Some really individual playing here with the winds coming across as decidedly saucy or cheeky, really very humorous indeed. There was a fair amount of stage re-shuffling while the performance continued and a few horns, winds and brass players moved over to the extreme right of the platform for Urlicht. To e honest, it rather came across as a Salvation Army band in the sonority as played here and I wonder if Mahler intended some sort of simplistic effect. It's possible.
The finale began with a percussion barrage that had the floor shaking but the two enormous percussion crescendos later on topped even that and I wondered if the RFH would be left standing. The percussion deserved a solo bow (they didn't get one unless I missed it) an all too frequent omission from conductors that needs to be rectified! Soloists Adriana Kucerova and Sarah Connolly were fine and the Philharmonia Chorus duly obliged in the choral ending with some, by turns, very quiet singing then a might roar. The decidedly non-HIPP organ made a telling contribution at the end.
A terrific performance despite all the fluffs and a Resurrection to remember. Where were Radio 3?
As part of their 30th anniversary the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment decided to be very ambitious and mount a performance of this mighty work. Too ambitious? In some ways I fear so: there were fistfuls of cracked and split notes from the horns and an embarrassing fluff from the solo trombone and these marred an otherwise terrific performance. I was sitting in a box overlooking the horns so could hardly miss the fluffs.
Vladimir Jurowski set the work in motion with a tremendous onslaught from the double basses, astonishingly deep and gruff. Those who know Jurowski's LPO recording would have found little to worry about interpretively as it as much the same. The difference lay in the use of 'authentic' instruments. Where this really told was in the woodwind and percussion, both very fine indeed and a big advantage. I don't think I've ever heard such amazing sonics from the woodwind as in the third movement. Some really individual playing here with the winds coming across as decidedly saucy or cheeky, really very humorous indeed. There was a fair amount of stage re-shuffling while the performance continued and a few horns, winds and brass players moved over to the extreme right of the platform for Urlicht. To e honest, it rather came across as a Salvation Army band in the sonority as played here and I wonder if Mahler intended some sort of simplistic effect. It's possible.
The finale began with a percussion barrage that had the floor shaking but the two enormous percussion crescendos later on topped even that and I wondered if the RFH would be left standing. The percussion deserved a solo bow (they didn't get one unless I missed it) an all too frequent omission from conductors that needs to be rectified! Soloists Adriana Kucerova and Sarah Connolly were fine and the Philharmonia Chorus duly obliged in the choral ending with some, by turns, very quiet singing then a might roar. The decidedly non-HIPP organ made a telling contribution at the end.
A terrific performance despite all the fluffs and a Resurrection to remember. Where were Radio 3?
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