Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 9 (1909-1910)
Park Avenue Chamber Symphony/David Bernard
rec. 2024, DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York City
Recursive Classics RC3691873 [78]

Back in January 2023, my colleague Roy Westbrook undertook to review the recording of the Fifth Symphony from this same source as this, moved by much the same degree of curiosity and even scepticism which prompted me to request this new recording for review.

After all, some fairly extravagant claims were made for the prowess in that Mahler Fifth of what is essentially a semi-professional orchestra; furthermore, it is understandable if a Mahler aficionado doubts whether it had the heft to do justice to the music when the focus is upon the clarity and transparency of instrumental lines over magnitude. However, as RW remarks, the photo in the digital booklet – the physical booklet in the CD jewel case is more limited – shows a fairly sizeable band for one which is supposedly of chamber dimensions and we find that in fact it comprises ninety musicians, which is at most only about twenty fewer than would normally perform it and hardly intimate.

However, leaving all that aside, my stance is simple: I much enjoy the clean lines and highly musical phrasing and pacing of this account, but am also aware that occasionally, in climaxes, some heft is lacking and orchestral sonorities are a little undernourished. The recording quality is exceptionally bright and clear; we hear pages being turned and the contributions of soloists are especially vividly highlighted but I am still that very emphasis upon clarity results in some loss of grandeur. I read elsewhere that this reveals the emotional nuance of the music more tellingly but I miss the sheer impact of more “upholstered” bands. For me, that Mahlerian quality of “sensationalism” which repels some listeners and can even turn mushy when overworked is precisely what I prize and is either sacrificed or perhaps simply not attainable here.

There is no doubt that we hear some particularly expressive playing from the brass and woodwind. Just occasionally ensemble could be crisper and more unified but that is less of an issue than the way individual instruments obtrude in the texture, creating quite an edgy, even shrill sound. The Rondo-Burleske is delivered with enormous energy and attack but for me the opening of the Adagio is too small-scale, ensemble again becomes a little untidy and there are occasional intonational problems, especially around half way through. Having said that, there is great intensity to the climax beginning fifteen minutes in; the horns are especially sonorous and the final rapt minutes demand the listener’s utmost concentration – an effect slightly marred by some lack of absolute steadiness in the strings.

Conductor David Bernard has a natural feeling for the echt Mahlerian style: tempi, the application of rubato, the relationship between sections and movements all sound right to me. Good as this performance is, that makes me wonder what the result would be if he were at the head of a top symphony orchestra capable of a plusher sound.

Ralph Moore

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