If you went to see this performance of Mahler’s Fourth live, you might come away satisfied, but it has no right to exist on disc. It’s quite similar to Tennstedt’s studio recording for EMI (perhaps even a bit better played), but otherwise lacking those special interpretive touches that listeners have every right to expect–an average, unremarkable evening out. Trumpets and horns are notably weak at the climaxes of the first and third movements. Percussion is recessed: there’s no tam-tam when it should be loud, and little bass drum. Eva Csapó sounds uncomfortable in the finale, her tone a bit wobbly, but better in the three songs (though she requires that optional extra breath in the “yodel” at the end of Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?). The sonics are cavernous, placing the woodwinds well to the rear, which is just the opposite of what you want in the Fourth of all Mahler symphonies. It all sounds terribly casual and unimportant. I do wish labels would stop releasing material just because they can. Does anyone, anymore, ask if they should?
