Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Hanna Hipp (mezzo-soprano)
Philharmonia Chorus, Tiffin Boys Choir
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko
rec. live, 27 April 2023, Royal Albert Hall, London
Reviewed as lossless download
Harmonia Mundi HMM905421.22 [98]
I hesitated before reviewing this because MWI has such a tradition of Mahler expertise, beginning with the late Tony Duggan (see his survey of the Third) back in the late 1990s and carrying through to Lee Denham, Ralph Moore and John Quinn in the present. However, as no reviews from my colleagues had appeared, and the release date was more than a month ago, I decided to take the plunge. I can’t claim the level of expertise of my colleagues, but the Third is one of my favourite pieces of music, and I have heard more than a few recordings and live performances. The latter are headlined by an overwhelming performance in the Salle Pleyel in Paris 2008 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer. Among the more than a dozen recordings in my collection, the ones that stand out are led by Claudio Abbado (Lucerne), Riccardo Chailly (Concertgebouw), Leonard Bernstein (the first New York) and François-Xavier Roth (Gürzenich). I was actually a little disappointed by Iván Fischer’s studio recording when it appeared.
Vasily Petrenko came to the public’s attention with an outstanding Shostakovich cycle for Naxos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Since leaving his post on Merseyside, he has made a significant number of recordings on LAWO Classics and Onyx. I think it is fair to say that they haven’t engendered as much attention as his Shostakovich, though most have been well received by MWI’s reviewers.
To the best of my knowledge, this is his first Mahler recording, and things don’t start well: the percussion strikes that punctuate the horn fanfares are mutters rather than exclamations. It is the most ho-hum opening to the work I have heard; I actually didn’t think it would be possible to make it sound ho-hum. Fortunately, things do improve across the sprawling first movement, though I did still feel that some of the drama was missing. I had absolutely no reservations about the following two movements, which are quite glorious. At over ten minutes, the Tempo di menuetto is one of the slowest in my collection (only Bernstein and Fischer are slower), but such is the playing that it is not an issue. The woodwind section absolutely shines. I do have a problem in the fourth movement with mezzo Hanna Hipp, whose vibrato is very wide, quite distracting and anything but misterioso. Unsurprisingly, the problem continues in the fifth movement where her singing clashes rather drastically with the choir. I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt, recognising that she had to sing to the whole audience in the Royal Albert Hall, not just the engineer’s microphone. The final movement, again one of the longest in my collection at over 24 minutes, falls a little short, seeming to lack the last degree of emotion and passion that elevates the best. Bernstein in New York is a minute slower, but he sustains an intensity that is as good as I’ve heard in the final movement.
The sound engineers must have groaned when they learned that the concert would be in the cavern that is the Royal Albert Hall. They have done as good a job as possible, but there are plenty of occasions in the quieter moments – I’m thinking here of the opening to the fourth movement – when you can hear a lot of background “ambient” noise, presumably the audience shuffling around. There is applause (well-deserved) included; sadly, at least one person begins it before the last note finishes.
It would be interesting to know why this recording has taken three years to appear. It has some considerable virtues, but also some considerable issues, so the overall conclusion has to be that it isn’t entirely successful.
David Barker
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