Mahler: Symphony No. 5
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GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä
[ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD ]
Release Date: Friday 1 September 2017
This item is currently out of stock. We expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks from when you place your order.
As a team, Osmo Vänskä and his Minnesota Orchestra began their collaboration with BIS in 2004. Launching a Beethoven Symphony cycle that made reviewers worldwide sit up and take notice: 'a modern reference edition' was the verdict from ClassicsToday.com, while Gramophone described it as 'a Beethoven reforged for today's world'. Twelve years later saw the release of the third and final disc in the Minnesota-Vänskä cycle of Sibelius's symphonies, with individual discs receiving distinctions such as a 2014 Grammy Award (for Symphonies Nos 1 and 4), Gramophone's 'Editor's Choice', 'Orchestral Choice' in BBC Music Magazine and inclusion on the annual list of best classical recordings in the New York Times. The present disc launches yet another series, of even more monumental proportions, with Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, recorded by the orchestra under Osmo Vänskä in Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis in June 2016. Composed in 1902, the purely instrumental work followed upon three symphonies that had all included vocal parts. This and the opening trumpet motif, an allusion to the rhythm that begins Beethoven's Fifth have been interpreted as Mahler's return to a more conventional idea of the symphonic genre. Other features are less traditional, however - a sometimes bewildering mixture of musical idioms reminds us of the melting-pot that Vienna was at the time, with allusions to Austrian, Bohemian and Hungarian styles. To an unsuspecting audience, the famous Adagietto for strings and harp - probably the best-known of all of Mahler's music - must also have been surprising, appearing at the heart of a work which is otherwise lavishly scored and orchestrated.
"There's something admirably unhistrionic about Vänskä's approach, but there are times when his determination to stop the performance from getting overheated holds things back...Against that, both the funereal opening and the joyous release of energy in the finale are superbly stage-managed, and the orchestral playing is exceptional throughout." The Guardian
"The orchestral playing is crisp, the conductor's clinical tendencies tempered by an understanding that emotional extremism is an essential part of Mahler's idiom even if it need not be indulged" Gramophone
"the Minnesota Orchestra...It's a fine ensemble that has been underrated for years. This Mahler is a difficult piece to perform, and the Minnesotans are in fine form...the quality of the recording. It's marvelous, revealing details in this symphony I haven't heard in other recordings. The highs sparkle, and the bass is prodigious when it needs to be. I auditioned the SACD 5.0 layer, and from an audiophile standpoint, the recording left nothing to be desired. The orchestra image is solid, surrounds provide the sonic fingerprint of the recording venue, which was Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis." AudAud August 2017
"The players certainly sound overjoyed to be recording again with their charismatic Finnish maestro. This symphony showcases their virtuosity in all sections... The players round off with an electrifying, dramatic account of the Rondo, captured in fabulously "present" sound." Sunday Times
"This performance has many virtues... it represents nonetheless a solid start to this Minnesota Mahler cycle. I found much to enjoy in the performance and I shall be very interested to hear what Osmo Vänskä - and the BIS engineers - make of the Second and Sixth symphonies." MusicWeb Oct 2017
