Classical Candor: MahlerFest XXXV (CD Review)

MahlerFest XXXV (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

(CD1) Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Mvmts. I-II; (CD2) Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Mvmts III-VI; Christopher Gunning: Symphony No. 10. Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra; Women of the Boulder Concert Chorale; Boulder Children’s Chorale Festival Choir; Stacey Rishoi, mezzo-soprano; Kenneth Woods, conductor.

We have previously encountered American conductor Kenneth Woods in his role as conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra, where he has often championed the works of contemporary composers. But Woods wears another hat as Artistic Director of the Colorado MahlerFest and conductor of their orchestra. Colorado MahlerFest is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1988 that presents an annual, weeklong festival celebrating Mahler’s life and music as well as the works of composers who influenced Mahler and by composers whom Mahler in turn influenced. The Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra draws together young professionals, conservatory and university students, and advanced amateurs. In 2005, the International Gustav Mahler Society of Vienna awarded Colorado MahlerFest its rarely bestowed Mahler Gold Medal. MahlerFest was honored alongside the New York Philharmonic, joining such past recipients as the Vienna Philharmonic and Leonard Bernstein. Last year, we reviewed their recording MahlerFest XXXIV, which featured Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 along with Symphony No. 5 by the British composer Philip Sawyers (see that review here). In November, 2022, MahlerFest XXXV featured a truly ambitious program: the grand Symphony No. 3 by Mahler along with the world premiere concert performance of Symphony No. 10 by the late English composer Christopher Gunning (1944-2023).

The Mahler and Gunning symphonies are quite different in scale, the former a six-movement work featuring not only a large orchestra but soloists and choirs, while the latter is a relatively brief one-movement work for orchestra alone. To present a credible performance of the mighty Mahler Third is a formidable challenge, but Maestro Woods and his MahlerFest forces prove themselves up to the task. Stacey Rishoi deserves special mention for her spot-on handling of her vocal part. In addition, the engineering team has done an excellent job of capturing a live performance in excellent, full-bodied sound. There are of course many fine commercial recordings of this symphony available, and many Mahler fans will already have their favorites, but this recording would not be embarrassed in that company. Moreover, you can see this performance, which you can view here. It is quite an unforgettable, uplifting experience.

But in addition to a fine performance of the Mahler, the program also includes the Gunning Symphony No. 10. Gunning, sadly enough, was too ill to attend the performance, and later succumbed to renal cancer in March, 2023. I was fascinated to discover that among Gunning’s many accomplishments was writing the theme music and many of the soundtracks for the TV series I watch every Saturday night, Agatha Christie’s Poirot (the world’s greatest detective deserves the world’s greatest theme music, n’cest-pas?).

On his website, Woods has posted a tribute to the late composer:

“It was heartbreaking to learn of the death of Christopher Gunning, although I’d been aware he had been unwell for some time. Chris was the sort of person one felt lucky to know. He could be incredibly funny, even wicked. His vault of amazing and amusing anecdotes was second to none. As a composer for film, television and commercials, he was an incredible craftsman who took the work incredibly seriously. Likewise, his hugely wide-ranging work as an arranger for all kinds of pop stars and showbiz legends. So much so, that his doctors told him that he had to leave that world or face serious cardiac repercussions. Leaving behind the mad deadlines of commercial music, Chris turned his enormous talent to concert music. I should say ‘returned’ his talent, because he had a deep training and grounding in classical composition, knew the repertoire inside out and had always kindled a flame to write more for the concert hall. I became a convert when Chris sent me a recording of his monumental Fifth Symphony with him conducting the RPO. It’s a powerful and serious work – a real symphony. And it turns out, one of thirteen real symphonies.

It was a huge honour when Christopher asked me to conduct the recording of his 2nd, 10th and 12th symphonies. We had an amazing few days recording these three powerful and varied works with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, culminating in a wonderful and unforgettable celebration meal afterwards.

Shockingly but unsurprisingly, none of the orchestras who had recorded his music seemed inclined to programme it. In fact, not a single one of those thirteen symphonies has been professionally played live (to my knowledge) until last year.

I was so excited last year when I was able to programme his 10th Symphony, one of his favourites (and his favourite of the 3 on our CD) at Colorado MahlerFest last year. By the time the dates were in the diary, Chris was too unwell to travel to Boulder, and by the time the video of the concert was ready, he was not up to watching the performance. I so wish he could have seen the enthusiasm of the musicians and heard the reaction of the audience. In the face of the music world’s ambivalence, Chris had always had to fight his own corner and build his own projects. I’d like to think the reaction in Boulder would have helped reassure him that his wonderful music will continue to be played even though he’s no longer around to drive things. I shall miss him terribly.”

If you would like to gain for yourself more of a sense of just what kind of person Christopher Gunning was, and learn some more about his music, you can take a look at this promotional video in which the composer discusses the recording of his Symphonies Nos. 2, 10, and 12 that Maestro Woods mentioned above. In addition, you can read the review that our own John Puccio did of this recording back in January, 2020 (John's review can be seen here). The performance of Gunning’s Symphony No. 10 on this release clocks in at just under 21 minutes. It is an introspective piece overall, but never static – it clearly has flow and direction, keeping the listener engaged. You can see a video of the performance here.

The music is engaging, the sound quality is excellent; the only quibble I have with this release is the lack of liner notes. Still, this is a unique and uplifting recording that is not just another same old same old. Should that sound appealing to you, please visit the Colorado MahlerFest website for more information.

1 comment:

MahlerFestAugust 31, 2023 at 9:47 AM
You are correct that there are no detailed liner notes. But there is a QR code to our detailed notes on the whole season, with an essay on Mahler's 3rd Symphony on Page 21. You can find that here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uCmTCktsN-tPhszbMj3-B8R5K5abwgH1/view?usp=share_link
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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