EMI must know that the world is not exactly desperate for yet another Mahler Fifth. The label (not including its Virgin Classics imprint) owns multiple previous recordings, at least three of which (Tennstedt live, Barbirolli, and Bertini) are excellent. The Berlin Philharmonic also has recorded the work three times previously, most notably a classic version of the work with Karajan on DG, still better than this newcomer in many respects, though Simon Rattle certainly outclasses subsequent remakes by Abbado and Haitink. In issuing this disc, then, on the occasion of Rattle’s formal assumption of the music directorship of the Berlin Philharmonic, EMI asks us to take stock of where the orchestra stands at this stage in its august history, and what Rattle brings to the party (other than the recording contract that was one of the principal reasons he got the job in the first place).
From the sounds it makes on this recording, it’s clear that the Philharmonic has some work to do to live up to its storied reputation. Never much of a “Mahler” orchestra, under Abbado some two-thirds of its personnel were replaced, and while most individual players operate at a very high level of technical accomplishment, the band’s ensemble work leaves something to be desired. At present, the orchestra enjoys superb strings, excellent winds, frankly mediocre brass with particularly timid yet coarse-toned trombones and tuba, and most surprisingly, thin, metallic horns. The percussion section, timpani excepted, remains feeble, and throughout this performance at both ends of the dynamic spectrum cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, and glockenspiel are conspicuously lacking in impact or missing altogether (and so therefore is much characteristic Mahlerian atmosphere and color). This is a particular problem in the first two movements and in the last. To hear the brass playing at its least impressive simply listen to the two great brass chorals toward the end of the second and fifth movements, where only the principal trumpet has any penetrating power.
Part of this impression stems from surprisingly ill-balanced sound, always a risk in recordings drawn from live performances. Yes, the sonics are generally clear and capture lower frequencies (bass drum) quite well, but aside from the scherzo, where the principal horn moves to the front of the orchestra, that entire section (as well as the percussion, of course) gets relegated to the far instrumental outfield–a critical miscalculation in this of all works. In the funeral march’s wild middle section for example (right after the timpani solo) that fortissimo lick for all six horns in unison is barely audible. In the second movement’s second subject, there’s a big sonic hole where strings and horns supposedly toss the melody between them, and in the finale the violins overwhelm the brass in those fugal entries where the horns should lead the charge. Everyone knows that acoustically speaking the Philharmonie in Berlin isn’t the best or easiest place to make recordings, but there’s simply no way that audiences on the evenings of September 7-10, 2002, heard balances like these. Compare this tinny, antiseptic sonority to the full, rich sound that the Bavarian Radio team gave Kubilik (Audite) back in 1981, to say nothing of DG under Karajan! EMI’s engineers should be skewered.
And so with two strikes against him, does Rattle save the day? In most respects, the answer is “yes”. He conducts an excellent Mahler Fifth, and alongside his fine version of the 10th this is probably his most powerful and persuasive Mahler offering to date. What problems he has mostly occur in the first two movements, and they typically take the form of sacrificing long-term structural cogency for incidental detail. For example, he anticipates what ought to be dramatic surprises, telescoping his punches by making a crescendo into the funeral march’s first rapid outburst, and holding back too much at the big climax of the second trio section. He also ignores Mahler’s instructions in those sections of the second movement that should be played in the tempo of the first (they’re a bit too quick). Finally, he gets carried away in the string portamento department in the scherzo’s second theme (it’s schmaltzy, but not that schmaltzy, and if Bernstein had ever done anything so mannered the British press would have been beside itself with righteous indignation and cries of “self-indulgence” and “interpretive narcissism”).
But in the final analysis, all of these facts are minor points. Rattle phrases the principal melody of the funeral march with extraordinary rhythmic clarity at an ideal basic tempo, and the string playing, which is the real glory of this performance, captures every copiously notated nuance (note the throat-catching hairpin crescendo from measure 49). In the scherzo, once that second subject is out of the way, it’s smooth sailing at a rapid basic pulse, and the later stages generate terrific physical excitement. Best of all, Rattle and his players truly peg the movement’s climax, with (thank god!) the engineers finally giving the horns their due. The Adagietto, at an aptly flowing tempo (a touch under 10 minutes in total), seldom if ever has sounded so ethereal, so beautifully played. Rattle phrases it simply, saving his interpretive points for an exquisite “morendo” decrescendo leading to the recapitulation, and a coda in which time seems to stand still. The finale benefits from Rattle’s lively approach and comes across with great vitality and excitement, its fugal passages bursting with energy. The closing pages would have been incandescent had the brass achieved a proper ensemble balance, and had the engineers not been thinking (seemingly) of some other work entirely.
So where does this leave us? Certainly this isn’t a Mahler 5 “for the ages”, but engineering issues aside it probably does give a fair picture of where Rattle and the orchestra stand as they embark on their new relationship. Clearly, they have some work to do in recapturing a full, well balanced ensemble sound, ruined by personnel changes and by almost two decades of comparative neglect under the (as often as not) musically comatose Claudio Abbado. This is, in fact, a young orchestra, for all the weight of history behind it. Still, and leaving aside the fact that Rattle could conduct a musical version of the Berlin telephone directory and it would be a best-seller in the U.K. (and win a Gramophone award to boot), his conception of this work has freshness, maturity, and a real point of view that differentiates it from the rest of the pack–and when all is said and done, EMI was right to make this recording and offer it for your enjoyment.
