| |
| Classics for Pleasure £4.49 (LP) CFP4144263 (two records, nas) £4.49 (Cassette) TC-CFP4144265 From HMV ASD596-7S (9/64). |
|
This is a personal and affecting account of a symphony whose sustained powers of compassionate human utterance put it beyond any comparable work of our century. Barbirolli's reading, predictably, is eloquent and broad spanned; every phrase is nurtured and sung di cuore, from the heart. Yet there is volatility, too; transitions burgeon and surge; and with what ardour are the grand and forbidding vistas sought out. Unlike some more dispassionate readings of the first movement, Barbirolli's makes no secret of its concurrence with Alban Berg's view that here "is an expression of an exceptional fondness for this earth, the longing to live in peace on it, to enjoy nature to its depth, before death comes".
The symphony has inspired so many great performances, both on and off record, that it's difficult not to seem indiscriminate, promiscuously praising everything that comes along; but re-hearing this, I wonder whether I've ever heard the coda to the first movement so generously sung, so warmly stated. My private loyalties in this symphony have long been with Bruno Walter (CBS 61369-70, 12/73) but I can't deny that Klemperer (HMV SXDW3021, 1/76), Haitink (Philips 6700 021, 7/70) and, recently and most strikingly, Karajan (DG 2707 125, 5/81) have shaped the great concluding Adagio more memorably. Barbirolli is of this company. Like the 73-year-old Karajan, whose authority over the Berliners he briefly usurped when he made this recording in 1964 (for older players memories of Furtwangler came flooding back), Barbirolli plays the Adagio with untrammelled commitment, and draws from the Berliners playing which is huge in its eloquence. Yet nothing is dragging or portentous. The release from the violins' fierce bridge of tone 40 bars before the coda is superbly spontaneous (the Berlin horns glorious throughout); and who but Barbirolli could conjure from the solo cellist so rapt a descent into the coda itself where every bow stroke is made to speak? Barbirolli keeps the middle movements in a steady perspective. The Landler of the second movement is local, idiomatic, and not too slow; the Rondo Burleske, here the embittered cousin of the Fifth Symphony's final Rondo, is not too quick.
Barbirolli is said to have recorded in lengthy takes, a challenge when players and conductor are unfamiliar with one another. There are, as a result, more lapses of ensemble and intonation than is usual with this orchestra. The recording, made in the Jesus Christus Kirche in Berlin-Dahlem, DG's old haunt, nicely marries openness with a good deal of immediacy. Brass, timpani, and woodwind (the latter not always perfectly tuned) are vividly caught; the strings are glorious, though there's a slight sixties buzz in places, and those with a choice will get better results on disc than on cassette. Walter's performance and Klemperer's, similarly-priced (round mid-price), need to be in the collections of interested Mahlerians, along with Karajan's. But for a mere £4.49 the Barbirolli is worth having, too. Its qualities of commitment, care, and compassion sing eloquently to us across the years.
RO