Liebestod
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Totenfeier
Symphony No 5: Adagietto
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Tod und Verklärung
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Jakub Hrůša
rec. 2022, Konzerthalle Bamberg, Germany
Reviewed as a digital download from a press preview
Accentus Music ACC30599 [76]

Some collections of music on disc prompt the question: why? Whilst bleeding chunks of Wagner have never gone out of fashion, for what reason do we need similar butchery inflicted on Mahler symphonies when they are all available in myriad versions in their entirety? It might be argued back that pianists regularly gut and fillet whole works to produce a thematic recital, so why not conductors? Why not indeed, but as with pianistic recitals on disc the question must always be, do the ends justify the means?

It isn’t hard to discern the theme of Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša’s collection, but despite being called Liebestod the emphasis is much more on the death part than the love. Indeed, his chaste, careful account of jointed Wagner shows little interest in the erotic element of Tristan. I think such a low key rendering is justifiable in the theatre where we have many overheated hours yet to come, but in such a studio presented excerpt I really want a lot more passion. The Bamberg Symphony do play with rare majesty and beauty and Accentus’ recording is certainly spectacular, but this was a curiously uninvolving Liebestod. It seemed to fall between the two stools of wild eroticism on the one hand and the dawn of modernism on the other.

Things certainly improve with Mahler’s first thoughts on the first movement of his second symphony, the Totenfeier. Here the spectacular recording really comes into its own in an attractively Wunderhorn conception of the piece very much in the style of Rafael Kubelik – lend an ear to the bassoon in the opening rhetorical gestures. It will be argued that this version isn’t an excerpt but a complete work in its own right but with my appetite whetted I wanted to hear where Hrůša would take the rest of the symphony. I suspect this would have worked better as a supplement to a performance of the complete work though I enjoyed it immensely in its own right.

If Leonard Bernstein seemed hell-bent on making the famous Adagietto of Mahler 5 about death, most opinion these days agrees that it in fact concerns love. The Bamberg strings amply demonstrate that they are more than a match for the characterful winds and gleaming trumpets on display in the Totenfeier but we are back to the Why question again here, however well they play.

The ‘recital’ ends with the only regular repertory presented in its entirety, Strauss’ Hollywood evocation of the great beyond. Only the implacable Klemperer has ever been able to convince me that this overheated, incense festooned extravaganza touches on anything spiritually profound and Hrůša for all his seriousness of intent doesn’t get close. I personally regard this score as the musical equivalent of those giant religious epics like The Greatest Story Ever Told or Quo Vadis. Immense fun, but not a lot in the way of sustenance for the soul. Therein lies the problem with this recording. As with the Liebestod it gets rather caught betwixt and between. Neither touched with sufficient Klemperer-like craggy grandeur nor sufficiently evocative of Charlton Heston looking moody in a toga and sandals. What it is, is played with rare refinement caught in a recording that is pretty much demonstration class. As with the Totenfeier, the combination of conductor, orchestra and engineers render naturally audible all manner of delightful details of Strauss’ scoring – in the first passion eruption listen to the writing for the lower woodwind normally lost in muddy, generalised bass sound. It is a great pleasure to listen to if it seldom quickened this listener’s pulse.

So, we come back round to the Why question. If I were reviewing a thematic piano recital disc, I would be asking myself a related question: does it justify the theme? In this instance, the answer, sadly, has to be a qualified No. Qualified because there is a lot to like about this recording, but it really doesn’t add up to more than the sum of parts. I already knew Hrůša is a very fine Mahlerian, for example, so I didn’t need these two calling cards. As a Wagnerian or in Strauss, this jury is out and I would need to hear more to be convinced.

David McDade

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