I picked up the Levi 7th last week and have listened to it a couple
of times.  I've been listening to Levi's Mahler, both live and recorded,
since he became Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony about 11 years ago.
While he's unquestionably improved the ASO technically, for me he does not
stand out from an interpretive standpoint.  His Mahler is a case in point,
typically with fine playing from the orchestra but offering little insight
into the music.

The recording of the 7th is a lot like the concert performance from
the same time:  slow tempos in the outer movements and Nachtmusik I
with Nachtmusik II being quite brisk.  As for the scherzo, Levi doesn
t emphasize the darkness and shadows, similar to how he approaches the
scherzo in his recording of Mahler's 4th.  There's good sound, good
playing, and some fine moments (such as the "religious vision" sequence
in the first movement).  On the down side, the final movement tends to
sprawl (at 19:16, it is the longest of any of the 13 7ths that I have,
beating the next longest - Bernstein's DG recording - by almost a full
minute).

Overall this is a decent performance - if you have to have this piece in
surround sound or whatever, it should do just fine.  OTOH, if forced to
compare it to the other 7ths in my collection it would be towards the back
of the pack, behind (in no particular order) both Bernsteins, Horenstein,
Solti, Haitink, Boulez, Haenchen, Scherchen, Kubelik, and Levine; ahead of
Gielen; and about even with Abbado.  But I'm sort of like Will Rogers when
it comes to recordings of Mahler's 7th:  I've never met one that I didn't
like.  ;-)

Tim Dickinson
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