Mahler

Symphony no 5
Sydney Symphony/Vladimir Ashkenazy
Sydney Symphony SS0201003
****

Despite some evidence of flagging in the last movement, this is for the most part an outstanding recording of this symphony – superbly conducted, played and recorded. Especially fine is the reproduction of the individual timbres of the various instruments and the horn playing is deserving of special praise. As so often is the case these days, however, the problem lies with the tempo chosen for the famous adagietto. Bruno Walter and Willem Mengelberg, who knew Mahler and probably heard him conduct the symphony or knew how he wanted it to go, each left two recordings of the adagietto. In his first recording (1926), Mengelberg takes seven minutes, in his second (1939) eight minutes and twenty seconds.  In his first recording (1938) Walter takes just over eight minutes and in his second (1947) seven minutes and forty seconds.  Ashkenazy takes just over eleven minutes. Many conductors these days take even longer. The notes to this CD state that the adagietto is really a song without words, but no singer could possibly sustain any song at this tempo. The notes also state that Mengelberg claimed that it was a declaration of love for Mahler’s wife Alma. But at this tempo the music is turgid and lugubrious and soon loses its melodic impulse. I suspect that this modern attitude to the adagietto dates from its use in the widely seen film Death in Venice when again it was played too slowly. A wealthy American amateur felt so strongly about this that he hired the London Symphony Orchestra, which he himself conducted, to make a commercial recording of the adagietto played at the faster speed. – Richard Gate