Re: Mahler 5 / Vienna Philharmonic / Bernstein / 1988 (live)

On 07/07/2024 14:22, Herman wrote:
 > Recently I watched a documentary about Edo de Waart, from a couple years
 > back.
 >
 > He talked about the time he won the Mitropoulos conducting competition,
 > in 1964. As a result of this he got to assist with Leonard Bernstein and
 > the NYPO for a year. Decades later he was still shocked how bad the
 > orchestra was back then and how Bernstein was happy with the ugly sound
 > he created. 'Like a tin bucket'.
 >
 > Why do I quote this? I think with Bernstein a lot of it is just his
 > charisma what you're hearing and if you don't buy the charisma it can
 > happen you hear a tin bucket.
I kept and will keep this CD (Mahler 5/Vienna Philh./Bernstein) because the performance is supposed to be 'thrilling', and I don't get it but don't trust the permanence of my own judgment.
In 1989 or 1990 I attended a Mahler concert for the first time: the same piece performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in Davies Hall, San Francisco, with Herbert Blomstedt conducting. The concert was impressive; I understood from two of my friends that it was obviously 'well rehearsed' and that the CD to buy was the one by Bernstein.
Nevertheless, I bought another CD, also made in 1988, by the Berlin Philharmonic with Haitink conducting. It was judged to be OK, but not so thrilling.
By the way, I remember Tower Records (2280 Market Street) being a wonderful CD store in the neighborhood, with a large classical music departmment. In those years, I also bought some CDs by the Kronos Quartet there and also a new Bruckner 4 by the Concertgebouw Orchestra with Chailly conducting, as well as some by the Smiths.
Around the corner, or a block down the street, or on Haight Street, or on Telegraph Avenue accross the Bay in Berkeley, Space Lady may have been performing on the sidewalk; I stopped to listen to her numerous times, and remember her idiosyncratic reading of this particular song:
https://youtu.be/l2z1Z9ZL1hY?si=68LYX-xbrBlg5gSX
Anyway, some 35 years later I confirm that -- in my opinion! -- Haitink's restraint and subtlety greatly benefit at least the first two or three movements of Mahler 5 in comparison with Bernstein's performance, which strikes me as unidiomatic, unrefined, and even dull (apart from the finale).
--
Roland van Gaalen
The Netherlands