Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (Live) (BR Klassik)
★★★★★
The seventh was the least understood of Mahler’s symphonies and the last to get recorded. Bruno Walter, Mahler’s closest apostle, never performed it. Otto Klemperer, next in line, distended it to 20 minutes over its regular length. At 75 minutes, it can tax an audience’s patience.
The symphony has five movements, two of them designated ‘Night Music’, though not in the Mozart sense. The score requires a tenor horn, cowbells, guitar and mandolin. Arnold Schoenberg grasped these Klimt-like colours as the foundational palette of modernism and used the last two in his turning-point Serenade, opus 24. Hermann Scherchen, who made the first recording of Mahler’s 7th in 1953, was so dissatisfied with the outcome that he released four follow-ups.
None of the major Mahlerians get it quite right. Leonard Bernstein’s recordings are episodic, Rafael Kubelik is too pastoral, Bernard Haitink neutral. The wildness of Klaus Tennstedt is always wonderful, if slightly incoherent. Abbado and Chailly stick to the middle of the road. Simon Rattle’s discs with Birmingham, the LSO and the Berlin Philharmonic feel a bit heavy at times when they ought to be dancing.
His latest account with Bavarian Radio sweeps away all such reservations. Munich has long been a haven for Czech musicians who push tempi to the precipice. Their conductor shares a propensity for taking risks at sharp corners.
The result is a concert that canters through Mahler country with scenic relish and a certain amount of relish. The first Nachtmusik no longer sounds like a car-oil commercial and the second is framed by a violin solo that is at once enticing and admonitory: this landscape will not last forever.
The finale just sets out to have fun, no deeper motive.
The architecture of the symphony feels, for once, exactly right and the quality of the playing is exquisite. You will not find a more satisfying Mahler Seventh anywhere on record. It has become my personal go-to. Make it yours.
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