Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (CD review)

Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. EMI 50999 5 01228 2 0 (two-disc set).

Sir Simon Rattle, one of the world's most distinguished conductors, leads the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the world's most distinguished musical ensembles. So, you'd think that EMI would provide them the best possible sound. Instead, either Rattle or the record company or both of them insist on recording most of his work live, in concert, and the results, as here, often diminish an otherwise fine performance. Not that the sound is bad; it's just not up to EMI's usual high standards of transparency and dimensionality. Ah, well....

You can count on Rattle to bring out all the longing, the suffering, the joy, and the transcendent beauty of Mahler's Ninth Symphony. He did it before in another live performance for EMI (with the Vienna Philharmonic), and he pretty much does the same here as I remember from the earlier account. Rattle takes the huge first movement, the "song without words" as it is sometimes called, very slowly, deliberately, painstakingly; the second and third movements he takes rather briskly, certainly appropriate to the Scherzo; and in the fourth movement Rattle wraps things up in a world of his own, rapturous, although not necessarily always completely affecting.

Interestingly, at the time Rattle made this recording (October, 2007), the Berlin Philharmonic had already released at least three better performances of Mahler's Ninth: two with DG, the earlier one with its longtime conductor, Herbert von Karajan, and a later one with Claudio Abbado, and one with EMI and Sir John Barbirolli. Rattle's interpretation doesn't quite measure up to those three, coming off a little too dramatically, with too much of Rattle involved and not enough of Mahler.

Upon direct comparison to some other favorites of mine in this piece, I continue to prefer Haitink (Philips) for pure beauty, the aforementioned Barbirolli for compactness of style, and Klemperer (EMI) for sheer structural soundness. Not to take anything away from Rattle, who is letter perfect, but these other three conductors seem to coax even more natural feeling from the music than he does.

About the sound: You'll not find the live performance at all distant or particularly beclouded as sometimes occurs when things are done in concert. Indeed, the recording seems to me too closely miked and lacking in depth. The spread is certainly wide enough, and the dynamics are fine, but there's no quality of spark or vividness about it to set it apart as anything particularly special. I suppose one could be kind and refer to it as "concert-hall realism."

And a final observation: The reading is just slightly too long for a single disc, yet EMI provide no coupling on this two-disc set.

JJP