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Review
This is home, or it should be, for any prodigal Mahler-lover weary of extreme gestures and fat sonorities. Thorough reacquaintance with Kubel?k interpretations long overlooked - especially his Sixth, Eighth and Ninth symphonies - convinced me that his is the golden mean of urgent forward movement, supple change of gear and the wisdom to know where more space or emphasis than the score indicates is really needed (supremely his own rallentando into the blazing return of the 'Veni, creator spiritus' in the Eighth Symphony and the three heavenward leaps before the big collapse of the Ninth's first movement). The Bavarian strings, sinewy rather than sensuous, benefit from the extra space of the later recordings, which include the famous account of the Adagietto used in Visconti's Death in Venice. Yet the placement of first violins ranged with basses left, second violins to the right, always pays off and goes some way to accounting for the unremitting textural clarity of the performances (reinforced by ever-characterful woodwind with an uncanny knack for the grotesque).
set follows the fashion for slimline presentation, previously adopted by Philips for Haitink and EMI for Tennstedt, though there's been no change since its fatter incarnation - still one symphony per disc except for the Third, and no attempt to accommodate Fischer-Dieskau in the song cycles. As for consistency, only the admirable Edo de Waart (RCA) competes in time-span and unity of vision. Until Rattle completes his cycle - the first to end, as it surely should, with the Cooke performing version of the Tenth Symphony - there can be no healthier overall survey.
Performance *****
Sound ***
© BBC Music Magazine 2000
Product Description
10CD Sobr/Kubelik
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
By Philoctetes
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD
Kubelik's years with the BRSO were (and are) a continual delight and if you want to invest in a set of Mahler symphonies under one baton, this is the best bet. Warmly and spaciously recorded in Munich during the 60s and 70s, Kubelik's Mahler is wonderfully lyrical and vernal, especially in the Wunderhorn symphonies; brisk without being hurried and always personable or should that be humane.
Symphonies 1, 4 and 5 get renditions I would prefer to all other contenders, with 3 similarly wonderful and 2, 7 and 9 enthusiastically done if not quite so exceptional. 6 & 8 are quite satisfactory, but the only way to really 'get' the 8th is to go to it in concert. The adagio of the 10th is also included, but get Rattle's CD (BPO, EMI) for the complete picture.
Choose this and avoid Bernie's campness, Abbado's coldness, Solti's aggression, Haiitnk's dourness, Chailly's autopilot and the occasional touches of lunacy that afflict the other contenders. Kubelik makes the most satisfactory gateway into Mahler's soundworld and will refresh those who've wearied of other leaden performers. Spirited and lively musicmaking for your pleasure.
Symphonies 1, 4 and 5 get renditions I would prefer to all other contenders, with 3 similarly wonderful and 2, 7 and 9 enthusiastically done if not quite so exceptional. 6 & 8 are quite satisfactory, but the only way to really 'get' the 8th is to go to it in concert. The adagio of the 10th is also included, but get Rattle's CD (BPO, EMI) for the complete picture.
Choose this and avoid Bernie's campness, Abbado's coldness, Solti's aggression, Haiitnk's dourness, Chailly's autopilot and the occasional touches of lunacy that afflict the other contenders. Kubelik makes the most satisfactory gateway into Mahler's soundworld and will refresh those who've wearied of other leaden performers. Spirited and lively musicmaking for your pleasure.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have a particular interest in these recordings. They were not only my introduction to Mahler but to classical music. It happened after I caught some Mahler used as soundtrack on a film - no, not "Death In Venice" but a James Caan film called "The Gambler" which featured the hair raisingly eerie opening of the First. I borrowed a boxed set of the symphonies from a local library and - yes, it was this very set but on vinyl.
After this I started buying more celebrated performances by Barbirolli, Horenstein, Karajan and others - all so much more lush. I adapted to the epic romantic style and the heart on sleeve approach.
When I eventually returned to this set in CD form I was astonished by its sinewy leanness. It may be said that such is the emotive quality of Mahler that his music doesn't need any added emphasis and that seems to be Kubelik's attitude. The swift pacing conveys not only a more comprehensible structure but also a complete lack of self-indulgence. The closest equivalent to this approach may be Boulez whose clinical attitude can create a paradoxical fascinating repellence with respect to these works but Kubelik projects a more human sense of involvement, a warm chamber like intimacy, and a more visceral sense of drama.
I confidently predict that - as with Boulez - you will either love or hate these performances. Wallowing is most emphatically not on the bill. And the speed adopted throughout may appal many who are accustomed to emotive underlining and sensual lingering.
Even those antipathetic to Kubelik's stance may find him attractive in the early works, which are given a more rustic abrasiveness than usual. At the faster speeds, the trumpet fanfares and piccolo arabesques in the finale of no. 2 come across like a gloriously iridescent noise while the whole of no. 4 is like a fleet footed sylvan dance.
But I would argue that the tremendous middle period purely orchestral symphonies (5,6, & 7) and the late works also benefit from streamlining. The finale of the Sixth is particularly impressive for its tight cohesion though many will no doubt think Kubelik sacrifices detail for structure.
Of course, when it comes to any great composer, there is no definitive performance but Kubelik's approach here is remarkable for its consistency of vision. And certainly for anyone coming to classical music for the first time this box seems to me to be an ideal introduction to one of the most fascinatingly idiosyncratic creative minds of all.
After this I started buying more celebrated performances by Barbirolli, Horenstein, Karajan and others - all so much more lush. I adapted to the epic romantic style and the heart on sleeve approach.
When I eventually returned to this set in CD form I was astonished by its sinewy leanness. It may be said that such is the emotive quality of Mahler that his music doesn't need any added emphasis and that seems to be Kubelik's attitude. The swift pacing conveys not only a more comprehensible structure but also a complete lack of self-indulgence. The closest equivalent to this approach may be Boulez whose clinical attitude can create a paradoxical fascinating repellence with respect to these works but Kubelik projects a more human sense of involvement, a warm chamber like intimacy, and a more visceral sense of drama.
I confidently predict that - as with Boulez - you will either love or hate these performances. Wallowing is most emphatically not on the bill. And the speed adopted throughout may appal many who are accustomed to emotive underlining and sensual lingering.
Even those antipathetic to Kubelik's stance may find him attractive in the early works, which are given a more rustic abrasiveness than usual. At the faster speeds, the trumpet fanfares and piccolo arabesques in the finale of no. 2 come across like a gloriously iridescent noise while the whole of no. 4 is like a fleet footed sylvan dance.
But I would argue that the tremendous middle period purely orchestral symphonies (5,6, & 7) and the late works also benefit from streamlining. The finale of the Sixth is particularly impressive for its tight cohesion though many will no doubt think Kubelik sacrifices detail for structure.
Of course, when it comes to any great composer, there is no definitive performance but Kubelik's approach here is remarkable for its consistency of vision. And certainly for anyone coming to classical music for the first time this box seems to me to be an ideal introduction to one of the most fascinatingly idiosyncratic creative minds of all.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By Colin Fortune
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
All responses to music, recorded or otherwise, are of their nature highly subjective and personal. If you want a Mahler set with emotion overlaid on the music then you should get Bernstein/DGG. This set is in many ways its antithesis.
In a perfect world Symphony 1 would have the short exposition repeat in the first movement. Even without it this performance is one of the most bracing and satisfying that I know.
Symphony 2 is excellent except for the very end of the disc where the engineers limit the volume because of the difficulty of recording this work. Soloists are very fine, however.
Symphony 3 is one of my favourite performances of the work with a bright and clear approach. Movement #1 is particularly noteworthy for being held together at a fairly brisk pace without any suspicion of hurrying. The subesequent movements are most sensitively and poetically done.
Symphony 4 works extremely well, again at a fairly brisk tempo. This is an alternative to performances by Maazel, Szell and Klemperer. Freshness is the keynote again.
With Symphony 5 the direct and poetic approach produces one of the most satisfying performances that I know for Kubelik lets the music speak for itself. Part One is excellent, with a funeral march that never drags in Movement #1 and an explosion of angry energy in Movement #2. There are delightful "lifts" to the walz rhythms in Movement #3. The Adagietto is a little slow by 2007 fashion but very well brought off. Movement #5 is a racing and jolly rondo full of life-asserting vigour.
I cannot get on with either Symphony 6 or 7. In the first case I find the tempi too frenetic and in the second a mercurial performace is spoiled by rather hard recording of the strings in particular.
Symphony #8 is conducted with much sensitivity but I think that the sound, again, is not as clear or commanding as other versions (notably Sinopoli). This is not much of an adverse criticism because any recording of this work will only give a pale idea of what happens in performance.
I believe that Symphony #9 is one of the greatest interpretations on record. There is a wonderful sense of forward motion in the first movement (it is ANDANTE commodo and not ADAGIO)and the complex emotional response that this music produces in most listeners is achieved by letting the music speak for itself. The orchestral discipline in the other movements is expemplary with the Rondo-Burleske (#3)an outstanding performance. The three different tempi in the Scherzo (#2)are well defined. The Adagio (#4) again has a remarkable sense of forward movement and line which for me in no way detracts from the sadness of the music. The ending of the piece is particularly moving and sensitive (this movement is played in the tradition of notable performers like Bruno Walter and John Barbirolli). This symphony is one of the best recorded in the set.
The one-movement "Symphony 10" only makes one wish that Kubelik had recorded one of the "completions" that we now can obtain so easily.
Words like "poetic", "sensitive", "clear", "brisk" and "exciting" occur to me when trying to describe the impression Kubelik's performances make on me. Throughout the set the playing of the BRSO is very fine, and the CD incarnations of these symphonies is in much better sound that the original vinyl discs. I believe that it is vital in Mahler to have an orchestral layout that splits first and second violins left and right across the stage - the first subject of #1 of Symphony 9 is given to them, for example, and in the music that requires clarity the stage-set for the BRSO provides it aplenty. Kubelik's was a great musical mind that allowed the emotion in the music to speak for itself without descending into the frigidity of Boulez or the occasional dullness of Haitink (though not in Haitink's superb Symphony 9 - only spoiled by not having split violins, in my opinion). Overall this is a fine set and a central recommendation - unless you like the cloying emotionality of late Bernstein or the interventionism of a conductor like Simon Rattle.
In a perfect world Symphony 1 would have the short exposition repeat in the first movement. Even without it this performance is one of the most bracing and satisfying that I know.
Symphony 2 is excellent except for the very end of the disc where the engineers limit the volume because of the difficulty of recording this work. Soloists are very fine, however.
Symphony 3 is one of my favourite performances of the work with a bright and clear approach. Movement #1 is particularly noteworthy for being held together at a fairly brisk pace without any suspicion of hurrying. The subesequent movements are most sensitively and poetically done.
Symphony 4 works extremely well, again at a fairly brisk tempo. This is an alternative to performances by Maazel, Szell and Klemperer. Freshness is the keynote again.
With Symphony 5 the direct and poetic approach produces one of the most satisfying performances that I know for Kubelik lets the music speak for itself. Part One is excellent, with a funeral march that never drags in Movement #1 and an explosion of angry energy in Movement #2. There are delightful "lifts" to the walz rhythms in Movement #3. The Adagietto is a little slow by 2007 fashion but very well brought off. Movement #5 is a racing and jolly rondo full of life-asserting vigour.
I cannot get on with either Symphony 6 or 7. In the first case I find the tempi too frenetic and in the second a mercurial performace is spoiled by rather hard recording of the strings in particular.
Symphony #8 is conducted with much sensitivity but I think that the sound, again, is not as clear or commanding as other versions (notably Sinopoli). This is not much of an adverse criticism because any recording of this work will only give a pale idea of what happens in performance.
I believe that Symphony #9 is one of the greatest interpretations on record. There is a wonderful sense of forward motion in the first movement (it is ANDANTE commodo and not ADAGIO)and the complex emotional response that this music produces in most listeners is achieved by letting the music speak for itself. The orchestral discipline in the other movements is expemplary with the Rondo-Burleske (#3)an outstanding performance. The three different tempi in the Scherzo (#2)are well defined. The Adagio (#4) again has a remarkable sense of forward movement and line which for me in no way detracts from the sadness of the music. The ending of the piece is particularly moving and sensitive (this movement is played in the tradition of notable performers like Bruno Walter and John Barbirolli). This symphony is one of the best recorded in the set.
The one-movement "Symphony 10" only makes one wish that Kubelik had recorded one of the "completions" that we now can obtain so easily.
Words like "poetic", "sensitive", "clear", "brisk" and "exciting" occur to me when trying to describe the impression Kubelik's performances make on me. Throughout the set the playing of the BRSO is very fine, and the CD incarnations of these symphonies is in much better sound that the original vinyl discs. I believe that it is vital in Mahler to have an orchestral layout that splits first and second violins left and right across the stage - the first subject of #1 of Symphony 9 is given to them, for example, and in the music that requires clarity the stage-set for the BRSO provides it aplenty. Kubelik's was a great musical mind that allowed the emotion in the music to speak for itself without descending into the frigidity of Boulez or the occasional dullness of Haitink (though not in Haitink's superb Symphony 9 - only spoiled by not having split violins, in my opinion). Overall this is a fine set and a central recommendation - unless you like the cloying emotionality of late Bernstein or the interventionism of a conductor like Simon Rattle.
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