Abbado's Mahler 2
Posted by: Todd A on 08 March 2005
Here’s a recording I was really expecting to like. Claudio Abbado’s 1999 Mahler 9 is one of my favorite recordings of that work, and I’ve recently listened to a number of new (for me) recordings conducted by the maestro and I’ve been uniformly impressed. So I picked up the Lucerne Festival recording of Mahler’s Second and Debussy’s La Mer ready to enjoy it thoroughly.
La Mer is a dud. The all-star band Abbado assembled certainly plays well enough, with some virtuosic playing in places, but the overall impression is of a nice concert that didn’t have to be recorded. There is nothing especially insightful or interesting about the performance, and it starts to fade from memory as soon as one presses the stop button.
Since I bought the set for the Mahler, a dud of a La Mer didn’t bother me. Unfortunately, the Mahler 2 isn’t special, either. It is relatively better than the Debussy, but compared to Michael Tilson Thomas’ recent release, for instance, it just misses the mark. Once again, Abbado’s handpicked band plays with some amazing collective virtuosity, as with the powerful open string passages, or during the various explosive crescendos, but they just don’t cohere like a long-standing band. That seems to be the cause of the shortcoming. Whereas MTT’s San Francisco group plays together with stunning precision and verve in quiet and bombastic passages alike, always lovingly presenting their maestro’s ideas with zeal, the Lucerne group seems to shine in moments of technical glory alone, leaving some of the more telling, chamber-like Mahlerian moments wanting. The second and third movements, for instance, while well played, lack any real sense of exploration.
When it comes to singing, Abbado, like MTT, has a mixed bag. His chorus executes better than MTT’s, but his soloists don’t fare better. Anna Larsson is simply no match for Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Eteri Gvazava is roughly on par with Isabel Bayrakdarian – good but not outstanding. As to recorded sound, MTT’s account sounds far, far better. For Abbado a touch of hardness creeps in during the loudest passages, and the greater reverberance erases some detail and the deep bass is wanting.
I wish I could sing this recording’s praises, but I really can’t. While it’s hardly a bad recording, it’s hardly a great one, either. The very straightforward, unaffected interpretation brings little insight, and while I can hear why some may like it – it’s direct and not too neurotic – it just doesn’t ignite like it should. I guess no conductor bats a thousand, so to speak, and that’s the case with even Claudio Abbado. Bummer.
La Mer is a dud. The all-star band Abbado assembled certainly plays well enough, with some virtuosic playing in places, but the overall impression is of a nice concert that didn’t have to be recorded. There is nothing especially insightful or interesting about the performance, and it starts to fade from memory as soon as one presses the stop button.
Since I bought the set for the Mahler, a dud of a La Mer didn’t bother me. Unfortunately, the Mahler 2 isn’t special, either. It is relatively better than the Debussy, but compared to Michael Tilson Thomas’ recent release, for instance, it just misses the mark. Once again, Abbado’s handpicked band plays with some amazing collective virtuosity, as with the powerful open string passages, or during the various explosive crescendos, but they just don’t cohere like a long-standing band. That seems to be the cause of the shortcoming. Whereas MTT’s San Francisco group plays together with stunning precision and verve in quiet and bombastic passages alike, always lovingly presenting their maestro’s ideas with zeal, the Lucerne group seems to shine in moments of technical glory alone, leaving some of the more telling, chamber-like Mahlerian moments wanting. The second and third movements, for instance, while well played, lack any real sense of exploration.
When it comes to singing, Abbado, like MTT, has a mixed bag. His chorus executes better than MTT’s, but his soloists don’t fare better. Anna Larsson is simply no match for Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Eteri Gvazava is roughly on par with Isabel Bayrakdarian – good but not outstanding. As to recorded sound, MTT’s account sounds far, far better. For Abbado a touch of hardness creeps in during the loudest passages, and the greater reverberance erases some detail and the deep bass is wanting.
I wish I could sing this recording’s praises, but I really can’t. While it’s hardly a bad recording, it’s hardly a great one, either. The very straightforward, unaffected interpretation brings little insight, and while I can hear why some may like it – it’s direct and not too neurotic – it just doesn’t ignite like it should. I guess no conductor bats a thousand, so to speak, and that’s the case with even Claudio Abbado. Bummer.