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Review by JJ March 27, 2009 (10 of 10 found this review helpful)
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When Gustav Mahler first performed his fourth symphony in G major in Munich in 1901, the musical world was also abuzz from the first performances of Debussy's Three Nocturnes, Dvorak's Roussalka, Rachmaninov's Concerto N° 2 for Piano and Orchestra, and Enesco's Romanian Rhapsodies. With this third volume devoted to Mahler's symphonies, Ivan Fischer offers us an overwhelming vision of the fourth, making it his own. For, as he points out, "Mahler's Fourth Symphony has an incomparable purity and transparency. The beautiful sleigh bells take us to the inner world of his childhood, with his dreams of angels, his fairy tales, his anguish and pure love of god. For this naive symphony, a different orchestra is needed. Without basse tuba, powerful trombones or an arsenal of hefty brass, it is in fact a chamber orchestra in which the clarinets play like ironic trumpets, the solo violin is accorded one tone higher in order to frighten us, and the lightness of the entire orchestra lifts us to a charming and childlike vision of paradise." After listening to this invaluable recording, the effect is quite simply miraculous. Soloists' balance, perfectly natural phrasing, details of the musical discourse lifted up as never before, as if suspended in space: its all there, and the impression of purity and transparency transforms the tones heard into veritable sonic poetry. The soprano Miah Persson participates in this feast of the senses with a voice that is both soft and fragile. Insofar as the sound, despite a somewhat low-level recording, it is first-class DSD, allowing the acoustics of the venue to blossom and breathe naturally. A great, a truly great Mahlerian. Bravo!
Jean-Jacques Millo
Translation Lawrence Schulman
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