Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (CD review)

Rosemary Joshua, soprano; Philippe Herreweghe, Orchestre des Champs-Elysees. PHI LPH001.

When Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) premiered his Symphony No. 4, neither the critics nor the public accepted it very well. That may come as a surprise to many of us today because it's such a familiar work in the catalogue, maybe Mahler's most popular piece of music. If I had to guess why the Fourth has become so favored over the years, I'd say it's because the work is so accessible, so tuneful, and so mature. Just as important, the music is big yet intimate, making recordings of it ideal for audiophile playback in the home. Plus, listeners seem to appreciate the contrasts in the music, going from grand, eloquent sections to quiet, personal passages, from deadly serious to mischievously satiric. There is no doubt that a lot of folks have discovered Mahler's music is one heck of a great way to enjoy themselves and show off their stereo system. In any case, Mahler is back yet again, this time from maestro Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysees.

As he had done in his first three symphonies, Mahler clearly intended his Fourth to mean something more than absolute, nonrepresentational music, and although he left no descriptive program, he did provide enough specific instructions for each movement that people get the idea. One of his followers, conductor Bruno Walter, had this to say about the symphony: "In the Fourth, a joyous dream of happiness and of eternal life promises him, and us also, that we have been saved."

The first movement, which Mahler marks as "gay, deliberate, and leisurely," begins playfully and hopefully with the jingling of sleigh bells. The second movement introduces Death into the scene, with a vaguely sinister violin motive. The slow, third-movement Adagio, marked "peacefully," is a kind of respite from the oddities of Mr. Death in the previous section. And the fourth and final movement is Mahler's vision of heaven and salvation as exemplified in the simple innocence of an old Bavarian folk song, a part of the German folk-poem collection Das Knaben Wunderhorn that Mahler loved. Here, the composer wanted the movement to sound so unaffected he insisted upon the soprano's part being sung with "child-like bright expression, always without parody."

The interesting feature about this new recording from Herreweghe is that his orchestra plays on period instruments. Nowadays, we find this treatment commonplace for eighteenth and nineteenth-century works, but Mahler premiered the Fourth Symphony in 1901, and because it never really caught on until later in the twentieth century, we've become used to hearing it played with modern orchestras. Yet Herreweghe's approach has merit, and his gut strings are in no way harsh, even though they tend to dominate the proceedings more than in a contemporary orchestra where the winds and brass have a stronger role. Nevertheless, the percussion section plays an important part in the sound and, while the percussion never overpower the other instruments, they are definitely in the forefront of the activity with their distinctly period flavor.

Anyway, Herreweghe's performance itself is convincingly unmannered, fluent and fluid, with an always graceful forward momentum, never rushed. Nor does the conductor ever fall into the throes of gaudy Romanticism, even in the serenity of the third movement, which simply floats lightly above our heads. Indeed, this may be the most-tranquil reading of the slow movement on record (though not the slowest by any means), making the big climactic segment all the more startling for its juxtaposition. Finally, the piece closes with soprano Rosemary Joshua singing the angelic part in an appropriately "child-like" manner without especially seeming "child like." Herreweghe's interpretation is remarkably gentle and one that with its period instruments offers a different, colorful, and rewarding approach to an old warhorse.

Recorded in Grenoble, France, in 2010 for Herreweghe's own, newly formed PHI label, the sound immediately strikes one as rich, lush, and ultrasmooth. Its warmth makes for a most-pleasant and realistic listening experience, although the soft, ambient bloom does tend to obscure some inner detailing. So, no, while the sonics are certainly natural sounding, they aren't as transparent as on a few competing recordings. Then, too, orchestral depth and overall dynamics are only moderate, which is still all right since the music and the performance are mostly relaxed and easygoing in any case.

Of minor note: The booklet lists the final movement at 6:41 minutes. It isn't; it's 8:41 minutes and actually more conventional in its pacing than the incorrect timing suggests. Don't be afraid that Herreweghe is trying to race through anything.

JJP

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa