Felix Delbrueck wrote:

>I've just listened to Benjamin Zander's Telarc CD of Mahler's 9th symphony.
>What's the opinion of the Mahler connoisseurs on the list? The best
>thing about the CD in any case is is a bonus 70-minute explication of the
>symphony by Zander including a close reading of the 1st two pages.  It gets
>rather corny at times, but to this novice at least it was fascinating
>stuff.

Far be it from me to pose as a Mahler connoisseur, but I really like
Zander's Mahler 9.  Lately I've been comparing it to Bruno Walter's later
version, which also has a supplemental disc.  Zander's is an explanation of
much of the symphony (50-plus minutes to get through the first two pages);
it's just fascinating and I've listened to it at least five times.  For
someone who needs the finer points spelled out (like me), it's excellent
and I wish it was a *two*-disc supplement.  Walter's is an interview disc
with a rehearsal segment.  It's fascinating in its own right, but the discs
have two different goals in mind.

As for the music, Zander takes almost 20 minutes longer than Walter.  I
was struck by the force of Zander's tympanies in I; much more muted in
Walter.  Given the hammerblows that Zander inflicted on us in his M6,
that's no surprise.  But where it blew out your speakers in M6, in M9 it
works much better than Walter's, IMO.  Zander's climaxes, especially the
first one early on, are much more dramatic, but Walter's -- coming against
a background of a calmer interpretation -- seem to stand out more from his
sonic baseline than Zander's does from his.  Throughout these two discs, I
got a sense of slipping in and out of tonality more in Zander's; Walter's
is more of a Late Romantic interpretation.  I thought Walter's Laendlers
movement dragged a little bit, but you have to love the foot-stomping,
which comes at the very same place that he did it in his 1938 version.
Walter somehow is more intense than Zander in the Rondo-Burleske.  Again,
it's that relative intensity compared to his more serene background; Zander
is more *absolutely* intense, but here it's more of an overstatement.  In
the Adagio, I was struck by how Walter makes the very last bars cohere.
I've heard several versions, and I often find myself losing my place or
concentration.  With Walter's faster pace, I can keep up with what's
happening.  With Zander, I find myself paying more attention to fiddling
with dials rather than hearing some of the most sublime music ever
composed.  The absolute worst here, IMO, is Bernstein/VPO.  He takes six
minutes to get through the last two pages, I've heard.  All of the above
is very subjective, of course.

Sonically, I find little absolute advantage in Zander's digital version.
You can hear absolutely everything with great separation, and for sure the
sound is "better." But Walter's, remastered from 1962, is surprisingly
good.  If a person prefers a cooler M9, he shouldn't fear the analog
recording.

In his book, Mahler discographer Lew Smoley called Walter's version the
product of a more mature conductor.  That sums it up for me.  I wouldn't
be without either of these discs.

Mitch Friedfeld