Back in the old days before full scores were printed, conductors directed the orchestra from a first violin part. Valery Gergiev often seems like that type of conductor: he plays the tune, but not much else. The problem with Mahler is that quite often the first violins don’t have the melody, and when they do, there’s an awful lot of interesting detail going on below the surface. Perhaps this explains why the opening funeral march, despite an excellently played start, lacks tension as it proceeds. The second movement hardly embodies “the utmost vehemence”; its disintegrating climax barely registers.
The scherzo also sounds unusually droopy in this performance, with its principal horn solo distinctly lacking in bravura (though God knows, these players have the chops for the music when they feel like showing off). The Adagietto is pretty, though, and the finale really does wake up. Its concluding chorale is brilliant, the closing pages extremely exciting, but this only begs the question of why the conductor and players seemed to be phoning it in earlier on. The engineering also isn’t great–somewhat hard, and unkind to the brass soloists (trumpet and horn) in tutti passages. This is okay for your average subscription concert, but not for general release.
