Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D major - DVD & Blu-ray videos

“This is a mind-blowing experience - a Mahler Ninth as great as any I've heard...There are no idiosyncracies in Abbado's approach, but instead there is an unerring sense of musical trajectory...the playing has a richness and expressive depth all the more telling for Abbado's wonderful sense of flexibility - really letting his orchestra play - and the vibrant transparency of the sound..the playing has an eloquence, intensity and utter beauty is simply overwhelming” International Record Review, April 2011

“This, his first commercial recording of the work, is even more luminous, elegant and subtly integrated than its predecessors...An interpretation that might seem too cool is in fact superbly gauged to provide maximal catharsis by the close...When the music finally ends and, as in any truly great account of this highly affecting score, one feels that life itself is ebbing away, all present are held in awed silence.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2011

“This captures much of the peerless tone-colour, shape, drive and above all those hushed dynamics of [the] performance, awarded what feels like an infinite silence at the end...Abbado's pacing is unrivalled...the mixture of close-ups and wide shots in the final rituals is superb as ever from this team. Finest concert DVD ever? I think so.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 *****

“this DVD of last summer’s fabulously fluid performance with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra is an important release. First, it brings together a peerless Mahler conductor with a hand-picked ensemble of huge individual talent. Second, it documents Abbado’s increasingly spiritual way with the music, the valedictory silences as much as the life-affirming vigour.” Financial Times, 14th May 2011 ****

“This really is something special, and one of the few classical orchestral DVDs which I’ve watched repeatedly. Abbado’s performance is remarkable. It’s not just the pin-sharp orchestral playing from the hand-picked orchestra, but the effortless ease with which this piece unfurls.” The Arts Desk, 14th December 2011

“The camerawork here is strong, bringing the viewer into the most interesting sections of the orchestra at any given moment and doing so in a particularly musical fashion. For Barenboim and Boulez, the Mahler project was as much about developing a relationship with a particular orchestra as it was with the composer; short of actually being with them in the concert hall, this is probably the best way to experience the results.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“Between 1971 and 1976 Humphrey Burton directed filmed concerts of Bernstein conducting the nine Mahler symphonies, along with DasLied von der Erde and the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth. Previous VHS and laserdisc incarnations suffered from uneven sound and occasional discrepancies of synchronisation between screen image and audio. Happily, DG's new DVD edition not only corrects these problems but also refurbishes the soundtracks in vibrant 5.1 surround sound.
Little can be added to the many words written about Bernstein's intense affinity for and ardent advocacy of Mahler. Indeed, the musicality and specificity of Bernstein's body language often seems to create parallel universes to each score's emotional peaks and dynamic valleys. One doesn't have to turn up the volume to sense the exultation and drive with which Bernstein inspires the huge forces in the Eighth's first part or the Second's final pages, gauging the protracted climaxes as he clenches his baton with both hands in long, agonising downward strokes. Watch, too, how Bernstein's eagle eyes and decisive hands anticipate tricky entries and tempo changes in the Fifth's second movement and the Seventh's first with unshakeable authority, or how he instantaneously adjusts dynamics and aligns rhythmic vagaries (the Fourth's opening bars, the Third's percussion).
Yet for all of Bernstein's podium choreography, he also knows when to stand back and simply let the musicians play, casually passing the baton back and forth between his hands, as in stretches of the Third's and Ninth's final movements and the Tenth's Adagio. And, like a benign sovereign, he frequently shoots his players and singers encouraging glances, with plenty of smiles to reward the Vienna Philharmonic's first-desk soloists, as well as their counterparts in the LSO (No 2) and the Israel Philharmonic (Das Lied).
Burton's visual style works hand-in-glove with Mahler's orchestration and dynamic game plans, saving close-ups for quiet passages and quick inserts that underline instrumental entrances.
In general, Bernstein's filmed Mahler interpretations represent a centre-point between the raw excitement characterising much of his pioneering 1960s CBS/Sony cycle and his riper, often more expansive late-1980s remakes. On balance, the video Fourth, Fifth and Ninth are Bernstein's finest performances of these works. The Fifth is faster and more incisively shaped than his 1987 traversal and the Vienna players get better as the performance progresses. Edith Mathis looks as radiant as she sings in the Fourth's finale. The Vienna Ninth is notable for the other-worldly stillness and delicacy of the final pages while the central movements bring the sort of abandon he shows in his 1960s Ninth.
A bonus disc provides additional and valuable context. 'Four Ways to Say Farewell' combines rehearsal and performance footage of the Ninth as a backdrop to Bernstein's narration, where he fancifully if plausibly likens the first movement's long-short rhythmic motive to Mahler's irregular heartbeat. Rehearsals of the Fifth reveal an even more balletic, gesticulative conductor than the public usually saw, along with important insights into the music's character (at one point Bernstein cajoles the brass to play 'like in Italian opera', pinpointing the influence of Verdi on Mahler that most critics gloss over).
A Das Lied rehearsal shows Christa Ludwig haggling over the breakneck tempo Bernstein sets in the 'Von der Schönheit' central section.
Then there is Bernstein at the piano, chainsmoking, giving an informal discourse on the work's symbolism and chamber-like orchestration ('You have to prepare an entire orchestra as if it was a string quartet').
In an age when Mahler's symphonies are ubiquitous, it's fascinating to witness the missionary zeal of Bernstein more than three decades ago, claiming how his 'acting out' the music rather than merely beating time helps him to convince his orchestras of the its greatness. With Bernstein at the helm, one doesn't take Mahler's greatness for granted.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Arguably this midway view on video is the finest of the three [of Bernstein's Mahler Cycles], and certainly the addition of video to the formula adds another layer of intensity, when here is a conductor who, almost Christ-like, physically seemed to suffer as he conducted, so dedicated was he.” Penguin Guide, 2010 **/*

“Little can be added to the many words written about Bernstein's intense affinity for and ardent advocacy of Mahler. One doesn't have to turn up the volume to sense the exultation and drive with which Bernstein inspired the huge forces in the Eighth's first part or the Second's final pages, gauging the protracted climaxes as he clenches his baton with both hands in long, agonising downward strokes. In general, Bernstein's filmed Mahler interpretations represent a centre-point between the raw excitement characterising much of his pioneering 1960s cycle and his riper, often more expansive late-1980s remakes. On balance, the video Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth are Bernstein's finest performances of these works. A bonus disc provides additional and valuable context. 'Four Ways to Say Farewell' combines rehearsal and performance footage of the Ninth as a backdrop to Bernstein's narration, where he fancifully if plausibly likens the first movement's long-short rhythmic motive to Mahler's irregular heartbeat.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2006

“All these peformances bear the stamp of the man on the podium...but the set's most positive and absorbing quality is its paradoxical focus on the orchestra, and in this composer above all, who may be adored as a conductor's composer” Gramophone Magazine, April 2013

“its employment of various conductors enables one to more closely observe their subtle differences in technique...It's also a delight to see such detailed camera direction, with the musicians foregrounded just as they appear: the revelation of the battery of eight French horns in the 3rd is all the more thrilling for its sudden appearance.” The Independent, 29th December 2012 *****

“its employment of various conductors enables one to more closely observe their subtle differences in technique...It's also a delight to see such detailed camera direction, with the musicians foregrounded just as they appear: the revelation of the battery of eight French horns in the 3rd is all the more thrilling for its sudden appearance.” The Independent, 29th December 2012 *****