Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 2 - Claudio Abbado

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No.4*, Symphony No.2 "Resurrection"^
*Frederica von Stade, *Wiener Philharmoniker,
^Eteri Gvazava, ^Anna Larsson, ^Orfeon Donostiarra, ^Lucerne Festival Orchestra,
Claudio Abbado

La Musica di Repubblica-L'Espresso

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I'm on vacation, so I'll look for suitable reviews when I'm back. I hope you enjoy it anyhow. After all, it's Abbado on Mahler: if you don't like it, it's OK. Just a tad eccentric.
If you think you could do better yourself, you probably are Dave "Abbado's-too-damn-good-for-me-to-like-him" Hurwitz's clone. Consider sueing your irony teacher for theft.
Update: now we even have an enthusiastic review, courtesy of our good friend Anchusa:

Fanfare
The Mahler symphony sounds terrific, too—the bass is deep and well defined, while there is a clarity and depth to the soundstage that greatly enhances Abbado’s dramatic conception of the piece. The engineers have provided another vivid experience, which places the listener very close to the action without sounding in the least bit cramped or artificial.

The performance will offer few surprises to admirers of Abbado’s previous Mahler recordings. As before, the lyrical and melodic are given high priority, while Mahler’s dramatic contrast is fully in evidence. In the first movement, Michael Tilson Thomas, in his own recent recording, brings more depth of feeling to the peaceful second theme in the development, and thereby provides even more contrast to the tense first theme material of the exposition. Abbado’s Andante movement proceeds at a free-flowing tempo that certainly evokes the hurly-burly of life but sacrifices some of the Viennese warmth that others (Bernstein, Tennstedt, Thomas) have found here; he does find the gentle humor in the pizzicato section. Where Tilson Thomas contrasted an expansive Andante with a brisk Scherzo, Abbado reverses this, taking the third movement at a moderate tempo that highlights its clumsiness; MTT was able to get more contrast out of the dreamy E-Major interlude. Abbado’s “outcry” section is suitably, convincingly dramatic.

Anna Larsson sings a very sensitively phrased “Urlicht,” equal parts nobility and melancholy. The finale arrives with lightning speed, yet isn’t quite the startling explosion I would have expected—the sound has just a bit less impact here. The episodes that follow comprise a dramatically coherent whole; the off-stage instruments are effectively distanced, especially the “Great Call,” wherein the entire dramatic scenario is marvelously evocative. After the entrance of the chorus, the focus of the recording grows just a little gauzy, with less sharpness and clarity in the orchestra; at the same time, possibly to enhance the more importunate nature of the drama at this point, the tension slackens. But the momentum soon returns, and the “Aufersteh’n” comes to a rousing close. The audience is heard to give its clamorous approval.

Christopher Abbot