Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (CD review)

Daniel Barenboim, Staatskapelle Berlin.  Warner Classics 2564 64316-2.

Another Mahler Ninth. The composer's continuing popularity goes unrestrained, probably because he offers so much, from the subtle to the grandiose, from the sublime to the bombastic. Certainly, the Ninth, Mahler's last completed symphony, contains a little of each, yet it does so in the most-moving manner of all his works. Which is what I missed most about Barenboim's recording with the Staatskapelle Berlin. While every note is polished and in place, the whole failed to moved me.

The Ninth has always been more than a little problematical. One can interpret it as expressionistic and optimistic, a journey into light, ending in sweet and everlasting repose; or it can be seen as pessimistic, a view of degeneration, death, and decay. I favor the optimistic view, but I can understand how at the time of the work's composition in 1909, Mahler was aware that he was gravely ill, and that he may also have foreseen the coming of the Great War and the end of civilization as he knew it. So, there is every possibility of reading the symphony optimistically or pessimistically.

I see the opening and closing movements as so relaxed and serene, they can only be an admiration of life and all its beauty, followed by a resignation of life's passing and a kind of contentment with what is yet to come. In the two middle movements, Mahler comes up with a typically bizarre and unruly set of Landlers, waltz-scherzos, and parodic Rondo-Burleskes. Frankly, only these middle movements under Barenboim worked for me. But even they seem forced and overemphatic. I was not touched by the outer movements as I should have been, nor was I too fascinated by the inner ones. Not a good sign. Of course, I may be spoiled by the classic performances of Barbirolli and the Berlin Philharmonic (EMI), Haitink and the Concertgebouw (Philips), Klemperer and the Philharmonia (EMI), and both Abbado and Bernstein with the BPO (DG). In those hands, the symphony reaches great heights and leaves one with a lasting impression of beauty and calm. Barenboim simply left me admiring its technical accomplishment.

Warner Classics recorded the performance live in 2005, but you don't hear a peep from the audience, and, thankfully, there is no closing applause to ruin the mood. The sonics are fine, although a tad close, with what sounds like a slightly elevated upper bass and a distinct presence in the upper midrange. The result is a touch cloudy and bright, but I'm sure the acoustic remains fairly faithful to its concert-hall setting.

JJP