| Review by jeff3948 December 20, 2010 (5 of 11 found this review helpful)
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I listened to this in SACD Multi-channel 5.0 sound. The SACD multi-channel sound stage is confined. One gets the feeling that everyone is cramped very tightly on stage and there is none of the beautiful reverberation that the Concertgebouw is famous for! I would imagine that once the hall is full of people, the reverberation gets muffled just like it does at Orchestra Hall (now called Symphony Center) in Chicago. The Chicago Symphony (CSO) SACDs suffer from the exact same confined feeling. I'm no longer going to buy CSO or RCO SACDs until they fire the current recording team and hire better sound engineers. The San Francisco Symphony Mahler SACD LIVE recording team is exquisite! Also, BIS is producing some fantastic LIVE recordings from Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra that capture the Sao Paulo Hall superbly! But even an excellent recording would not help this uninspired performance! Conductor Jansons concentrates on producing beautiful music, but leaves out the passion required to pull this symphony off to it's full measure. The sudden cry of "Was vergangen, auferstehen!(What perished, rise again!)" in the last movement should have been MUCH louder! Then, the great cry of 'Bereite dich!' is weak and the entire section feels lacking of passion right to the end, where the organ is barely heard and the final ff climax is too soft in comparison to the preceding pianissimo. This symphony is about hope overcoming death and dispair which requires the utmost display of passion. Time after time where there should be explosive drama, Jansons gives us restraint instead. I heard this symphony performed live in person with Micheal Tilson Thomas conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus 5 years ago and it was an incredably inspiring performance. The Chicago Symphony Chorus sang "Was vergangen, auferstehen! (What perished, rise again!)" at full volume and it sent chills through my body, unlike this performance! However, I loved the basses nice volumus full B-flat below the bass clef (The lowest note ever written for basses) which comes across better than any other recording I've heard. It's heard 3 times in the hushed entrance and again on the words "Hör'auf zu beben". Because of this I give this performance 2 stars instead of 1.
Additional Note: The DVD is in PAL format and would NOT play on my Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blue-Ray Player.
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| Review by sweatsock December 21, 2010 (4 of 9 found this review helpful)
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I totally disagree with the low ratings. Like the previous recordings of RCO Live, this one is a real gem to me. I must confess that I don't owe a lot of different versions. I cherished my Inbal on Denon (CD-recordings) a long time, but I'm totally overwhelmed by the approach of Janssons.
From the RCO live Mahler recordings so far, I like the fourth the less....exactly...the one that isn't done by Janssons, but by Haitink (whom I highly appreciate...)...
No, don't be fooled..this 2nd is a real bargain for only € 20, with the (very fine) live DVD as a bonus.
I think of the sound as crystal clear, very balanced but still expressive.
Owe it for some weeks now but I really rediscover this symphony through this recording. Can't wait for the 3rd to come out! And mr. Janssons....please cover my beloved 4th also. Haitink won't mind, I guess....
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