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Review by J.B. November 3, 2005 (12 of 12 found this review helpful)
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Vision and Beauty
As I said in my earlier, lengthier review for Amazon, I really think that this is a performance of truthful vision and of often staggering beauty, not least because of the truly magnificent, full and spaceous recording. The most endearing quality, in my very personal opinion, is its relaxedness, which I like very, very much. For me it truly underlines its deeply Romantic source material. But at the same time, this performance is never, ever boring. Well, yes, indeed it does seem slow - sometimes very, very slow - compared to for example Sir Simon Rattle's recording with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (on EMI). Some commentators - mainly those endeared with Rattle's quickening and freshly alive (more classical?) approach - find this performance lacking in coherence. This is not true: the coherence in Nagano's approach IMHO lies mainly in its quality to let the music breath freely and to let it unfold on itself (for as much such a thing is possible; but then again, this is my rather personal feeling about Nagano's steering). The music is allowed to bloom, helped enormously by the recording.
In the end it's all a matter of tastes, so I would like to say: if you really love Mahler's Eighth Symphony, you should maybe buy BOTH albums and compare ... and cherish.
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Review by terence April 9, 2006 (7 of 8 found this review helpful)
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| i'd second J.B.'s review, although i personally feel that nagano's recording really does put rattle's DECISIVELY in the shade. for one thing the orchestral playing is a lot better (the CBSO is a seriously overrated orchestra, especially by UK critics), and i also prefer the choral singing. this really is a beast of a work to record, and this is easily the best effort i've heard to tame it, far surpassing in sonic terms any RBCD stereo recording you care to name, including the likes of solti and tennstedt. nagano's version appeared at roughly the same time as rattle's, and in the UK at least got a markedly inferior press reaction (rattle, like his former orchestra, is generally overrated in britain). but i cannot hear nagano's version as anything other than very much superior as both performance and recording. the HM engineering makes telling use of multichannel. i'd rate this as one of the finest SACD recordings in my collection.
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