Mariss Jansons has plenty of ideas about how this music should go, but many of them aren’t terribly convincing. The very opening isn’t promising–the tenor horn sounds timid, and the extreme tempo adjustments in the first movement sectionalize the music to the point where they destroy Mahler’s carefully balanced form. Listen to Jansons’ drastic ritard just after figure 10, a decision that both anticipates and makes nonsense of the more relaxed and lyrical second subject when it finally arrives. There’s a difference between observing Mahler’s numerous detailed markings and micro-managing the piece to death. Jansons simply doesn’t get it.
The first Nachtmusik, however, is wonderfully played; indeed, both of them are, but to be honest any conductor who can’t make a fine impression in that music has no business being on the podium. The scherzo lacks the last ounce of spookiness, though the woodwinds do their best to characterize their parts and manage some nicely screechy sounds. As so often happens in this work, though, the finale is a let-down. Efficient and somewhat humorless, with timpani that get lost at one point (to their credit the player and Jansons recover quickly) and not enough raucous banging and clanging at the end, this is one live performance that certainly didn’t need to be released.
