Given that Mahler’s Ninth is one of the luckiest symphonies in terms of reference versions, Zander inevitably faces stiff competition, yet the outer movements alone are worth the price of admission and the attention of anyone who loves this extraordinary work.Ĭlick here to listen to Mahler’s Symphony no. Listen to the string section’s pinpoint unanimity of phrasing and timbre throughout, and you’ll easily mistake these young musicians for seasoned veterans. Zander and his Boston musicians find their expressive centre with their touchingly controlled finale. The clarity of instrumental detail often beggars belief, yet one misses the nimble ensemble attacks and releases that distinguish Karajan’s live Berlin version or the coda’s cataclysmic power in the first and finer of the late Michael Gielen’s two recordings. Similar observations apply to the ‘Rondo-Burleske’. By contrast, the ‘drunken waltz’ episodes are convivial rather than fierce, lacking the sardonic cutting edge associated with Ančerl and Chailly. He begins the second movement’s first Ländler theme deliberately, then picks up the pace at bar 10 (it takes a few seconds for the musicians to adjust and lock in), and keeps listeners in suspense by the way he calibrates the soft dynamics. Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2006, Editors Choice. BBC Music Magazine, October 2006, 4 out of 5 stars More Release Date: 2nd Oct 2006 Catalogue No: CDA67585 Label: Hyperion Length: 69 minutes Awards: Building a Library, October 2009, First Choice. Granted, you don’t get Bernstein’s volatility or the impeccable sectional alignment and upward sweep of Alan Gilbert’s stunning Stockholm recording, yet Zander clearly knows what he wants to bring out. In a time of great string quartet playing, the Takács Quartet. Mahler’s signature stopped-horns passages are characterised with colourful versatility, as are the hushed string conversations at around 16 minutes into the movement. Schubert - String Quartet no.14 Death and the Maiden Sibelius - String Quartet Intimate Voices Death preyed heavily on the minds of both Schubert an. Zander carefully organises the first movement’s intricate contrapuntal strands and minutely scaled dynamic indications to the point where the climaxes shatter without becoming diffuse. None of Zander’s subsequent Philharmonia Mahler recordings lived up to that Ninth’s promise but this 2018 live remake with the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra recaptures the Philharmonia recording’s salient qualities, and with superior engineering to boot. Walton String Quartets Albion Quartet Signum I was instantly stuck by the sheer vividness both the compellingly committed playing and the immediacy of sound of this superb chamber album from the Albion Quartet. The music captures Schubert’s fearful state of mind in a remarkable ‘freeze frame’ effect.Benjamin Zander’s detailed immersion in both the letter and the spirit of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony yielded a generally excellent live recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Telarc, 4/99), now out of print. ‘Give me your hand, you fair and gentle creature I am a friend and do not come to punish’ sings Death soothingly. The D minor quartet makes ingenious use of his earlier song ‘Death and the Maiden’ from 1817 in the slow movement’s variations. With his emotions veering from happy memories of earlier years to shuddering terror at the prospect of death, he composed two string quartets and the Octet over a two- month period. "I am the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world…whose health will never be right again" wrote Schubert to a friend in 1824. Album reviews from the pages of Gramophone, the worlds leading classical music magazine, from 1983 to today. Taut and highly concentrated, it has an almost Haydnesque construction, and the quartet’s first movement’s sheer perfection of form approaches that of the 3rd Symphony’s opening movement. Album reviews from the pages of Gramophone, the worlds leading classical music magazine, from 1983 to today. The bleak and highly personal 4th Symphony is the masterwork from this period, but the string quartet ‘Intimate Voices’ of 1908 should not be underestimated. Sibelius had undergone several operations to remove a tumour in his throat. $ ĭeath preyed heavily on the minds of both Schubert and Sibelius when they were composing the two string quartets on this new CD from the Ehnes Quartet.
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