Some collectors may know Hermann Scherchen’s 1952 studio recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony via its 1996 release in MCA’s short-lived Millennium Classics series. This reissue sounds marginally better. The instrumental timbres gain in clarity and definition, but not to such radical extent that you need to replace the earlier disc. I suspect both CD remasterings have fake reverb, due to the relatively drier ambience evident from the original LPs. Despite the frequent tonal rawness, lousy intonation, and lack of executional finesse (exaggerated, in part, by Westminster’s characteristically close miking), the Vienna State Opera Orchestra plunges with riveting intensity into Scherchen’s eccentrically fast and unyielding tempos for the second movement and the opening movement’s Plötzlich schneller. The musicians seem to want to move the Scherzo’s outer sections a shade brisker than Scherchen requests, but at least the conductor plays the movement complete (his published live versions of the Scherzo are marred by massive and quite unnecessary cuts).
In contrast to Scherchen’s unbearably protracted 16-minute account of the Adagietto with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the present reading clocks in at a (relatively) normal 9:15. Here the gaunt string tone underscores the music’s aching delicacy, but the Finale disappoints: we might have expected a higher energy level and sense of cumulative sweep along with the admirable contrapuntal clarity Scherchen maintains. My quibbles should not prevent Scherchen fans from acquiring this flawed but fascinating performance. As a Mahler interpreter, though, I find this conductor’s recreative iconoclasm yields more interesting results in the First, Second, and Seventh Symphonies.
