Notes and Editorial Reviews
...you should hear this—another live performance, far more imaginative, atmospheric and tangible than Abbado's studio account with the Chicago Symphony (DG)... A quite extraordinary pianopianissimo sets the scene here. Every sound, every dynamic, adds to a heightened sense of expectation. Our wayfarer is relaxed and contented (who wouldn't be in the hands of the Berlin Philharmonic cellos?), a little subtle rubato coaxing the theme along like gestures of affection. Abbado's natureworld is fragrant indeed: listen to the muted horns before fig. 15 (9'52" onwards). Very beautiful, but just a shade self-conscious--as are the assorted tugs and ritardandos (all scrupulously chronicled by Mahler) in the long, slow crescendo to the climax of
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the movement... Parody is of course the order of the day in the bitter-sweet third movement, and here I think Abbado and his Berliners get the balance just right—gently grotesque in the funereal round, quirky in the café music, and prettily wistful (a real stories-around-the-fireside feel) as muted divisi violins steal in with the second subject. Marvellous refinement of texture throughout.
In the finale...Abbado begins arrestingly—shrieks of alarm from the high woodwinds, a real buzz of bow on string in the violins' feverish two octave ascent to tremolando high C. ...[H]e...adopt[s] a deliberate, even emphatic approach to this tumultuous allegro... Abbado...allows the great second subject to breathe in all the right places and [is] unforgettable as Mahler, the hero, alive to greet another dawn, takes that long backward glance just prior to the coda...
-- Gramophone [10/1991]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Symphony no 1 in D major "Titan" by Gustav Mahler
Conductor:
Claudio Abbado
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1888/1896
Date of Recording: 12/1989
Venue: Live Philharmonie, Berlin
Length: 54 Minutes 43 Secs.
Notes: Composition written: Leipzig, Germany (1888).
Composition revised: Germany (1896).
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