Mahler 4

An Extra-Special Mahler Fourth
Pair together an accomplished orchestra (the Leipzig Gewandhaus) and a brilliant conductor, Riccardo Chailly, who takes his work quite seriously, and who also reveres Mahler, and you have the ingredients for an excellent Mahler Fourth.

The next necessary ingredient is a soprano who can sing the ingenuous, simple and direct role of the angel, describing Heaven, perhaps through the eyes of a child, without making herself or her voice the "star of the show." Christina Landshamer adds this component seamlessly. She does not dominate, and that is as Mahler wished, preferring an angel who lovingly narrates, describing for us a child's view of Heaven.

The Blu-ray's DTS HD Master Audio allows excellent sound reproduction for a Mahler work where (as in all Mahler works!) there are so many sounds that we don't want to miss.

Likewise, Blu-ray's photographic reproduction is crisp and clear, and allows the photographers who filmed this concert (26/27 April, 2012)...

Bel-canto Mahler and much more
Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig have already given us two outstanding interpretations of Mahler symphonies on DVD/Blu-ray: the Second and Eighth, both 2011. Here is the Fourth: a most welcome addition to what I hope may be an ongoing series with the goal of eventually recording all the symphonies. I find the Accentus audio and video, as usual, exemplary, with particular praise for the camera team and their appropriate focus on instruments/groups, no gimmickry here but thorough knowledge of the score. As a bonus, the disk brings an introduction to the Welte-Mignon piano player/recorder apparatus and – an eerie but revelatory experience – Gustav Mahler’s own recorded Welte-Mignon roll ghost-playing the final movement of the Fourth on the empty Gewandhaus stage in an amazing 7:39 minutes. An additional bonus (bravo, Accentus!) is Riccardo Chailly’s 15+ minutes interview/monologue on interpreting Mahler’s Fourth that eloquently presents...



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