Free download. Descarga gratuita. Por fin la novena de Mahler dirigida por Gergiev, en vivo, con la London Symphony Orchestra, grabada en el Barbican en Marzo de 2011.
De este registro, el apreciado critico que se firma Santa Fe Listener en Amazon a dicho:
By using the latest DSD recording technique and close miking, the engineers of this live Mahler Ninth aim for maximum visceral impact. I mention this at the outset because one is almost overwhelmed from the first notes, sitting at Valery Gergiev's elbow in the very thick of things. It's also notable that this, the last installment of his Mahler cycle, which launched the conductor's tenure in London with a wow, was actually taped last spring, two years later. If Gergiev was guilty of learning Mahler on the job - he had no previous record with this music - all signs of unfamiliarity are gone, as well as any lingering doubts on the part of the orchestra. The London Sym. has decided to give its all, taking risks in a high-wire act that Gergiev manages with utmost confidence.
In interviews he has said that for him Mahler is a risky composer, because so much is pushed to the extreme that following the score where it wants to go could end in losing control or failing outright. The spirit of courageous going forth permeates this reading in a way that harks back to Bernstein and Tennstedt. I heard this Mahler Ninth on tour, and even in the dry, unflattering acoustics of Avery Fisher Hall, the audience was astonished. English orchestras aren't renowned for derring-do. They are known, however, for allowing great conductors to inspire them, as they do here, and the result is often hair-raising.
As with Bernstein, Gergiev's way is to accept Mahler's extremism and use it as his personal canvas, phrasing with freedom and a feeling of spontaneity. The bar lines disappear, the rhapsodic takes over. Because of its urgency (the first movement lasts only 27 min.), there's never a sense of dissecting or analyzing the score's details, yet one hears them anyway, on the wing. One aspect of Mahler's extremism is that the alternative to hysteria is an eeriness approaching near silence, and Gergiev is attentive to that as well. But he doesn't use the tension-and-release rhythm common to much Mahler conducting, where quiet episodes give us a reprieve until we race off again. This performance sustains its tension at every volume level; in my experience only Bernstein and Tennstedt could do it as well.
The Scherzo generally presents the most marked contrast among various recordings. Gergiev is poles apart from Klemperer's lumpen-Viennese humor and earthbound tempo. This Scherzo is quick and driven, with no spirit of the landler about it and no humor (the only thing I find lacking in Gergiev's musical personality). If anything, the mood tends toward the caustic. The overall timing of 15 min. doesn't indicate that the fast parts are faster than usual and the slow Trios slower. there's also an emphasis on Mahler's contrapuntal writing, especially in the woodwinds. The effect is to exchange rusticity for dazzling execution, a thrill in its own right.
One might expect Gergiev therefore to downplay the savagery of the Tondo-Burleke, and he does, paying attention to vivid contrasts and once again to counterpoint, a dull word that comes alive in Mahler's hands (the only time it fails him, I think, is in the finale of the Third Sym.). This is the only movement where I find Gergiev too straitlaced; he could be having more fun and aiming more pointed satire. Such things are relative, of course, and on its own terms this movement is played for thrills, buoyed by a vibrant sense of rhythm. One will have to turn to Bernstein for more of the burlesque in Rondo-Burleske.
The concluding Adagio is the soul of this symphony, and knowing that, conductors can overplay the sentimental side of Mahler's opening theme (a slowed-down transformation of a theme in the previous music, now turning ghostly satire into a reach for transcendence). This movement tests the conductor to handle an arc of emotion, slowly spun out over half an hour, while doing justice to every shifting mood. Gergiev's timing of 24 min. is telling, because you see that instead of milking the music by being extra slow, he intends to show us the movement's structure. Drawn-out phrases are not lost on us by lagging so long from beginning to end; even Bernstein is guilty of that. For once, the urgency of forward motion - to a dark, unknown conclusion - prevails over the lower strings digging into the earth like ecstatic mourners who never ant the funeral to end. Gergiev has always been at his best organizing slow music, and he outdoes himself here. It's as if he grasps the entire movement in a single breath and allows us to breathe with him.
If this isn't a Mahler Ninth to set a new standard, Gergiev's version joins a handful of the greatest ones, at the very least.
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