Mahler: The Complete Symphoniesby Anonymous

Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings

November 22, 2002: Conventional wisdom holds that a boxed set is not the "correct" way to make these enormous, multi-faceted symphonic works available for home listening. No one conductor (unless his name is Leonard Bernstein) can get each of the Mahler symphonies right, according to this truism (although the same rule apparently doesn't apply to Beethoven's symphonies, which are at least as difificult to pin down as Mahler's). Far better is to collect individual recordings, or so they say. One danger of that approach is that unless you're a fanatical Mahlerite, you run the risk of burning yourself out on the quest for the "definitive" Mahler Fifth or the "definitive" Mahler Ninth--whatever "definitive" may mean in music that is open to so many different viewpoints. As an ardent Mahlerite, I'm here to tell you that it **is** possible to take the simpler approach of a one-conductor boxed set without cheating yourself of a full-fledged "experience" in each symphony. Among that "mighty handful" of worthy contenders is this reissue of the symphonic cycle Klaus Tennstedt recorded for EMI between 1977 and 1986. No, this is not a collection of "ultimate" performances of this "ultimate," all-encompassing music. And yes, there are some flaws: Neither the conducting nor the orchestral playing is consistently "on" from start to finish, the recorded sound varies from symphony to symphony, and the Eighth Symphony ideally needs a bigger chorus. But Tennstedt manages to communicate the essence of each of these works, and that's a rare enough achievement. For me, his approach is like the famous inscription on the title page of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis--"From the heart; may it go to the heart." And it does: For me, it's more moving than the higher-voltage approach of Bernstein, supreme Mahlerian though Lenny may have been. My problem with Bernstein's Mahler is that there is too much of the conductor's personality overshadowing the composer's, as though the music can't speak for itself. Without being at all reticent, Tennstedt lets Mahler take center stage.