On the heels of an excellent Chailly Mahler 3rd, comes and mostly
excellent Mahler 9th.  The first thing I noticed about this performance
is the careful attention to balance and a preciseness of intonation which
reveal chordal and polyphonic treasures hitherto unknown to me.  The
work of conductor and orchestra pays off handsomely in these respects
in the last mov't, where Mahler's writing can be extremely dense in the
strings.

The scherzo is as wicked as ever, yet Chailly allows plenty of room for
Mahler's orchestra to breathe.  Special mention goes to the solo trumpet
in the slow middle section of this mov't-it's beautifully lyrical; while
the orchestral accompaniment is appropriately hallucinogenic and yearning
by turns.

The Adagio finale is beautifully dispatched-notice how lyrical yet
purposeful the solo horn is, and how luxurious the strings sound (!)
yet listen to all those exquisite chords they are able to pull from the
score.  The climax of the mov't has never sounded so huge and transparent
to me, as the orchestra collapses into the fate motif, then come the
soli strings moving downward one note at a time.  They're intense, but
some may be disappointed that they can't hear bows cracking and strings
snapping.  The final return of the great horn theme is grand, but
paradoxically introvert-no "quotes" around the final big farewell before
the quiet closing pages-it just "is" and the tragic import here is such
that I felt as though I was eavesdropping.  I've heard other performances
where this moment sounds quite valedictory.  Resident Mahlerians: what
does Mahler ask for here?  Horn-crack phobics: the horns sing their
hearts out, but there are no wobbles or cracks.

Alas, the first mov't doesn't quite hold together persuasively,
the astonishing virtuosity of the orchestra notwithstanding.  Chailly
doesn't make much of the more phantasmagorical aspects of the mov't,
such as when the tympani quietly thumps out the motif with bass-clarinet
grotesqueries in the background; it doesn't sound as sinister as it
could.  The climactic gong-stroke is way too bright to sound properly
cataclysmic, but that's a matter of personal taste, I guess. My humble
reservations about the first mov't aside, I found the rest of the symphony
to be absolutely compelling--do give it a try. 5+ stars for the 2nd,
3rd, and 4th mov'ts; 4 stars for the 1st, if I were forced to judge an
overall performance in such a way.

The recording in surround is the best ever.  (No center channel even
though the little surround grid on the back has 6 dots.) Very wide,
reverberant; yet the ensemble is front and center with percussion palpable
and window rattling.  Strings are as SACD warm as they can be, even in
the most strident passages.

John Smyth
Sac, CA