Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Symphony #9

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli
EMI 67926

How does a symphony, or any piece of music, mean?  What it means is only
one part of that matrix because the meaning of anything is the result
of the feedback between and among the facets.  I say this because when
asserting that a recording is "great" (let alone GROC) you must consider
the parts but also realize that the gestalt is greater than the sum of
the parts.

I'll cut to the quick and assert that this recording of Mahler's 9th is
one of the great ones.  With who is it comparable is not a meaningful
question because in the last analysis any great recording rises above
comparison.  There are, rather, other facets that need to be looked at.
While I may consider Zander's recent recording, or Walter's stereo one
on SONY, to be great this is not the same because the context is not
important.

"since feeling is first" as ee cummings put it, that is where to start.
In his interview with Dan Rather Stokowski said, "Emotion, life, or
lifeless." Barbirolli's interpretation conveys the emotions of the human
experience.  There is angst, despair, frivolity, surrealism, acceptance
and peace.  As I sit and listen to the recording Barbirolli and the
Berlin Philharmonic transport me, like it should, to another level of
existence.  Like a good novel it takes me from the mundane to the sublime.
It begins with the feelings that open the symphony, grabbing you from
the first moment.

Yes, and time is important, too.  To understand the symphony means not
just to hear it with today's ears.  If you know the context in which and
from which it was born, not only biographically, historically and socially
but also artistically, then you have another facet of its "meaning" to
help appreciate the gestalt.  While it is born of a time and place the
music should transcend its time, like any great music, it must also
transcend it.  It must provide the listener with the totality of time,
a continuum from the past to the present and to the future.  As I listen
to Barbirolli and the BPO making music I also feel them taking me from
the world of 1910 to the world of 1964 and then to my time and the time
of my children and grandchildren.  This is evident in the way Barbirolli
brings together all four movements in an organic whole.

Okay, sound is also important.  There are many great performances of
this music, like Bruno Walter's in 1938 with the Vienna Philharmonic,
that are limited by the sound.  While the original CD incarnation of the
Barbirolli (on EMI 63115) was good this one is smoother, richer, fuller
and does not tire the ear.  More important, I can now hear and appreciate
individual instruments as the parts relate to the whole.  This is true
of so many places that specific references mean little, but I found
myself saying "yes" as I heard them.  The Berlin Philharmonic was a great
orchestra and Barbirolli knew it well (see the notes on this matter) and
brought out the parts of the fabric.  As a whole, however, listen to
just the opening of the symphony, its deep and haunting chords as part
of the fabric, and if you are not moved by its emotion you must be made
of stone.

What is the symphony about?  It is about the human condition.  It is
about self-awareness; the knowledge that we are born to die and that
knowledge is surreal because there is nothing we can do about it.
It is not just existential, however, because, like the symphonies of
Shostakovich, it moves from the self to all of humanity.  Ask not for
whom the bell tolls.

These are but a few of the facets of this great symphony.  Near great
recordings include Bernstein.  He evokes the existential qualities but
does not transcend them.  Other performances do not capture the totality
of the emotions in the music.  They skate over the surface and may be
beautifully recorded but that is not enough.  Lopez-Cobos's is one of
the most beautifully recorded on record, but it bores me and this is not
boring music, as Barbirolli makes clear.

The Barbirolli is emotional.  "Emotion, life, or lifeless." This is one
of the great recordings of the century.

Peace from he who is stumpf