Gramophone magazine loved this performance, at least in comparison to the recently issued LSO/Gergiev, which means there’s a much better than average chance that it’s as dull as ditch water. Sure enough, great Mahler this is Nott (sorry, couldn’t resist that one). There is one, and only one, distinctive interpretive moment: the second half of the scherzo proper, which contains lots of interesting wind detail, albeit at the expense of some of the usual brass figuration that we hear in most other performances. Still, it’s colorful and interesting.
As for the rest, conductor Jonathan Nott begins the first movement atmospherically, though the offstage trumpets are too distantly balanced. This is a tricky movement, in that Mahler’s tendency to dwell on the tonic key combined with the lack of strong thematic contrast can give the impression that nothing is happening–but it must never sound that way. Nott’s flaccid meander through the first three-quarters of the movement ensures that tedium rules. The opening of the scherzo features an exaggerated staccato articulation that, at Nott’s tempo, breaks the music up into discreet chunks. It’s interesting to note that Mahler does not put a staccato dot over the opening motive’s half notes, only the quarters, and if Nott had played it as written this would have been less of a problem.
The funeral march plumbs new depths of dullness. Its slowish basic tempo is exacerbated both by Nott’s unconvincing rubato in the Klezmer episodes and his failure to give the ensuing oompah dance music sufficient rhythmic lift. There’s no color, humor, or vulgarity (and not enough percussion presence either). The finale suffers from less than ideally powerful brass playing at the opening (with particularly weak horns) and a second subject that’s positively anesthetized. The final peroration also severely lacks brilliance. Nott doesn’t use the brass reinforcements to the horns that Mahler suggests (at least not obviously), and given that section’s backward placement and less than heroic tone, the ending falls flat despite Nott’s efforts to increase the excitement by speeding up in the final pages.
Tudor’s engineers offer faithful and realistic sonics in all formats, giving us a clear picture of a distinctly second-rate orchestra dutifully slogging through an uninspiring interpretation. In this day and age, yet another mediocre Mahler First is the last thing we need, and neither here nor in Tudor’s previous Mahler Fifth will you detect any outstanding affinity between conductor and composer. This performance defines the word “average”.
