As Leonard Bernstein did with the Vienna Philharmonic, Klaus Tennstedt was able to take an orchestra with little history in performing Mahler and get it to play his music with passion, commitment, and in a thoroughly idiomatic manner. Listen to the way Tennstedt has the normally reserved London Philharmonic woodwinds snap into parade-ground crispness during the raucous first movement of the Third Symphony; or notice the way he coaxes them to really cackle and crow in their portrayal of the forest animals in the same symphony’s Scherzo. Yet Tennstedt also is “romantic”, almost “old fashioned” in the more tender moments, such as the slower sections of the second movement, or in his elongated but beautifully phrased Posthorn solos. In short: Tennstedt captures the ersatz medieval German romanticism of Mahler’s earlier Wunderhorn stage like nobody else except Bernstein. It also helps that this is one of EMI’s two best digital recordings in its complete Tennstedt Mahler cycle, along with the Eighth Symphony.
Mezzo-soprano Ortrun Wenkel is both rugged and appealing in Zarathustra’s midnight song (fourth movement), and the choral work in the “bim-bim” movement is second to none–including the children. We also should be thankful that Tennstedt manages to complete the final Adagio in less than 21 minutes, otherwise this “twofer” wouldn’t have happened at all. Yet the conductor gives us the only successful recording of the Adagio that works at such a speed–far better than either Solti (both of his), or Vaclav Neumann in his otherwise excellent rendition. Tennstedt achieves this largely by not shortchanging the big brass chorale toward the end of the movement. I love the way he plows into the climax of that brass chorale with a very big cymbal crash, and with a powerful start to the sustained bass drum roll. This is pure Tennstedt country.
The Fourth Symphony isn’t nearly as successful, either as a performance or in its recorded sound. The first movement is quick, crisp, and classical in structure. Alas, scrappy playing disfigures the development section and the orchestra sounds rather uncomfortable in places. Still, the Scherzo and fourth movements are mostly excellent. Tennstedt takes the second movement Scherzo at a very fast clip–something that runs counter to the trend in more recently recorded renditions. The grand climax to the slow movement comes off very well, though it’s sonically challenged by the standards of today’s best digital recordings. Soprano Lucia Popp is captured in much fresher voice than she was on Gary Bertini’s otherwise superb Mahler Fourth, also on EMI. As always, you could do better by purchasing separate recordings of both of these symphonies; however, having them together on this Double Forte “twofer” constitutes a major bargain.
