Mahler: Symphony No. 7 in E minor (Das Lied der Nacht)

“this newcomer from Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra sets out an uncommonly rational and compelling case for this unjustly maligned work...Mehta's account is urgently propulsive and, for the greater part, very cogently argued...it is in the crazy clamour of the Rondo finale that Mehta's multi-facted reading finally coalesces, powering towards the triumphant final peroration and drawing playing of ecstatic brilliance from his orchestra.” International Record Review, February 2012

“The first 'nightmusic'… benefits from the hard work of Jansons the soundmaster, with downward plunges phenomenally clear and luminous woodwind trilling… the Rondo-Finale make [Mahler's] the best possible case for Mahler's clear-sighted depiction of communal exuberance. ...Jansons's judgment in tempo co-ordinations is superb here...” BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 ****

“...a depth and breadth of sound that really hits you...In sonic terms alone it’s breath-taking, but so is every other aspect of the Bavarians’ performance.” Financial Times, 2nd January 2010 *****

“The finale is breathtaking as a piece of orchestral alchemy, winds and brasses blending seamlessly into virtuoso and lustrous strings.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2009

“The Seventh was not an especial high-point of Tennstedt's Mahler symphony cycle with the London Philharmonic – not that it's a bad performance, per se, it just never really catches fire. A live performance from 1993 (EMI), made at one of the conductor's last public appearances, is considerably more compelling, though the first movement is encumbered by some dangerously slow tempi. This BBC Legends release comes from a 1980 concert given at the Edinburgh Festival just a few months before Tennstedt and the LPO took the work into EMI's Abbey Road studios.
It's a revelation. Yes, the interpretative outline is similar in both accounts – and the live version is not without its technical stumbles, of course – but how fervent the playing is here, and how much more sense Tennstedt's tempo manipulations make. Listen, for example, beginning at 9'05” in the first movement where a vast landscape of breathtaking purity is conjured, or to the movement's end, which is driven with just the right amount of brute force, it seems, to set one's heart pounding. The Scherzo is appropriately eerie, full of shadows and shrieks, yet it sings, too – a weird and powerful effect. Most impressive of all, perhaps, is the treacherous finale, where Tennstedt and the orchestra make the most of the music's manic mood swings. This is, without a doubt, a great Mahler Seventh.
Mozart's Jupiter Symphony would have benefited from an acoustic less cavernous than the Albert Hall, but it's still a stylish performance.
The slow movement is given an operatic sense of dramatic purpose, the Minuet has a surprisingly songful grandeur, and the joyousness of the finale is not merely exuberant but heartfelt.
Treasurable.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“…how fervent the playing is here… Listen, for example, beginning at 9'05" in the first movement where a vast landscape of breathtaking purity is conjured, or to the movement's end, which is driven with just the right amount of brute force, it seems, to set one's heart pounding. The Scherzo is appropriately eerie, full of shadows and shrieks, yet it sings, too - a weird and powerful effect. Most impressive of all, perhaps, is the treacherous finale, where Tennstedt and the orchestra make the most of the music's manic mood swings. This is, without a doubt, a great Mahler Seventh. Mozart's Jupiter Symphony would have benefited from an acoustic less cavernous than the Albert Hall, but it's still a stylish performance. Treasurable.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007

“gleaming brilliance … exuberant mischievousness.” – The Gramophone

“The San Francisco Symphony are on top form - oboist William Bennett deserves special praise for his lovely solos in the fourth movement - though in high-lying passages the violins often sound strident… It's in the finale that the new recording wins out, not just for its gleaming brilliance but for its exuberant mischievousness.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2005