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The sleeve-notes for Ivan Fischer's new recording of Mahler's Fourth contain a statement by Fischer that initially makes one's heart sink. Culminating in a 'lovely vision of paradise', the symphony, Fischer argues, shows Mahler taking us 'to his own inner child, to his dreams of angels, fairytales, angst and pure divine love'. Concerns that we're in for an hour of unremitting sentimentality are mercifully unfounded. Childhood, in Mahler, is viewed as both an idealised lost Eden and a place of primal trauma - and Fischer is as interested in the abysses that threaten to open round this music as he is in its surface calm. The combination of naive excitement and indefinable menace is strikingly sustained throughout, while the final vision of paradise, coolly voiced by Miah Persson, is at once funny, savage and unbearably sad. Fischer's insistence that the symphony should be treated as chamber music means this won't appeal to those who like a high-decibel count in Mahler, but the Budapest Festival Orchestra's playing is exceptional in its dark-hued subtlety. It's a provocative, iconoclastic performance, and highly recommended. Tim Ashley - Friday 13 March 09 Tim Ashley --The Guardian - 5 out of 5 stars
Product Description
CHN 26109; CHANNEL CLASSICS - Olanda; Classica Orchestrale
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
How much rehearsal time does Ivan Fischer get with his Budapest Festival Orchestra? I raise the question simply because his Mahler recordings show such infinite and loving attention to detail in these, the most detailed of scores.
His Mahler 4 is no exception. The little squeezes of crescendo/decrescendo on small phrases or even single notes are all carefully observed. So, too, the many little caesuras in the score as well as the variety of different emphasis markings - dots, sforzandi, little decrescendo marks. It all helps to characterise every phrase, every theme. His affection for the Mahlerian portamento/glissando, shown in previous recordings, is also here in abundance (though almost always only when marked in the score) and even extends to the voice in the last verse of the final movement.
This is not enough to make a great Mahler conductor, of course. But Fischer shows himself to be just that throughout the work. He always seems to make it sound so natural. The subtleties of tempo variation are a sheer delight. For example, just before the dash for the line at the end of the first movement there are no less than 10 modifications of tempo in as many bars - rit., subito a tempo, accelerando, rit.. molto rit., langsam, another rit., sehr zuruckhaltend (holding back a little), a tempo and poco a poco stringendo. Fischer moulds it all into a moving and naturally flowing whole.
In his essay in the accompanying notes, Fischer talks about the chamber orchestra feel of the whole symphony and of `the lightness of the whole orchestra'. This certainly comes through in the playing. Which is not to say that he eschews the darkness and angst of the piece: this is perhaps a Child's Paradise Lost.... Read more ›
His Mahler 4 is no exception. The little squeezes of crescendo/decrescendo on small phrases or even single notes are all carefully observed. So, too, the many little caesuras in the score as well as the variety of different emphasis markings - dots, sforzandi, little decrescendo marks. It all helps to characterise every phrase, every theme. His affection for the Mahlerian portamento/glissando, shown in previous recordings, is also here in abundance (though almost always only when marked in the score) and even extends to the voice in the last verse of the final movement.
This is not enough to make a great Mahler conductor, of course. But Fischer shows himself to be just that throughout the work. He always seems to make it sound so natural. The subtleties of tempo variation are a sheer delight. For example, just before the dash for the line at the end of the first movement there are no less than 10 modifications of tempo in as many bars - rit., subito a tempo, accelerando, rit.. molto rit., langsam, another rit., sehr zuruckhaltend (holding back a little), a tempo and poco a poco stringendo. Fischer moulds it all into a moving and naturally flowing whole.
In his essay in the accompanying notes, Fischer talks about the chamber orchestra feel of the whole symphony and of `the lightness of the whole orchestra'. This certainly comes through in the playing. Which is not to say that he eschews the darkness and angst of the piece: this is perhaps a Child's Paradise Lost.... Read more ›
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Colin Fortune
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
This is one of the most ravishing Mahler discs that I have heard for some time. The playing of the orchestra is stunning and the balances favour some wonderful wind and brass detail whilst delivering the full impact of the whole orchestra when required. Fischer is ia sensitive interpreter, rounding the phrases in the music most pleasingly with a bracing first two movements.
The third (adagio) movement is played so well on this recording that Fischer makes it sound like the greatest movement Mahler ever wrote! It encapsulates all the joy and pain of life as it moves towards the huge "Gates of Heaven" climax just before it drifts into the final movement. This is remarkably good playing and conducting.
And then... Well we have the song finale with Miah Persson as a charming and very clear soprano soloist. For me the trouble was that the third movement was so overwhelmingly good that this charming movement, almost like an intermezzo, was something of an anticlimax. To be fair you could claim that this is a problem with the unusual structure of the symphony as much as anything else and this could indeed be the case. But Fischer's conducting also sounds just a little matter of fact at this point with a fairly speedy overall tempo that is just a little unyielding in approach. This may be an over-critical reaction but if it is, it is because of the comparison with the wonderful intensity of the other movements, particularly the Adagio.
Despite this (slight) criticism I believe that this is a disc full of delightful insights from Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra and that this disc will provide great satisfaction. Recommended.
The third (adagio) movement is played so well on this recording that Fischer makes it sound like the greatest movement Mahler ever wrote! It encapsulates all the joy and pain of life as it moves towards the huge "Gates of Heaven" climax just before it drifts into the final movement. This is remarkably good playing and conducting.
And then... Well we have the song finale with Miah Persson as a charming and very clear soprano soloist. For me the trouble was that the third movement was so overwhelmingly good that this charming movement, almost like an intermezzo, was something of an anticlimax. To be fair you could claim that this is a problem with the unusual structure of the symphony as much as anything else and this could indeed be the case. But Fischer's conducting also sounds just a little matter of fact at this point with a fairly speedy overall tempo that is just a little unyielding in approach. This may be an over-critical reaction but if it is, it is because of the comparison with the wonderful intensity of the other movements, particularly the Adagio.
Despite this (slight) criticism I believe that this is a disc full of delightful insights from Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra and that this disc will provide great satisfaction. Recommended.
By JPF
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This recording of Mahler's 4th is a better quality than I expected - I would like to know how high
on the popularity charts it stands.
on the popularity charts it stands.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Big D
Format:Audio CD
The BFO and Fischer triumph once again. I don't remember during my life hearing a better performance of this work. This is for me very close to perfection - I think that I heard two notes in the first violins where I wasn't completely happy with their portamento, but otherwise... I have no reservations about Miah Persson's singing; it fitted the conception of the performance like a glove. Listen and prepare for enchantment!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I'm having a Mahler phase, listening to various recordings of his symphonies. This one is quite excellent along with the earlier CR recording of symphony 2. There are heaps of new releases almost by the week from the big labels, but this Mahler series is the one to watch. Highly recommended
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
"There is a unique purity and transparency in Mahler's 4th Symphony. The enchanting sleigh bells take us to his inner child, to his dreams of angels, fairy tales, angst and pure, divine love. This child-like symphony needed a different orchestra: no dark tuba, no heavy trombones, no large arsenal of massive brass. A chamber orchestra in fact, where the clarinets act as mock trumpets, the solo violin tunes his strings sharper in order to scare us and the lightness of the whole orchestra lifts us up to his lovely, childish vision of paradise." (Iván Fischer)
Other versions recommended on CD and DVD:
1) George Szell, Sony CD.
2) Leonard Bernstein, Deutsche Grammophon DVD.
Other versions recommended on CD and DVD:
1) George Szell, Sony CD.
2) Leonard Bernstein, Deutsche Grammophon DVD.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Musica Vita
Format:Audio CD
First of all, the technical quality of this recording is first-class. Every nuance of Mahler's delightful score can be heard, without undue emphasis to any of it. Just listen to the accompaniment to "Death's Fiddle" in the second movement, or the gurgling trio sections! The Fourth is basically a chamber symphony, with very few really loud climaxes: there are really only two, one in the middle of the first movement and the other near the end of the third. Ivan Fischer never tries to exaggerate any of the dynamics but just presents the music simply, as Mahler might have wished. That does not mean there is a lack of emotion, on the contrary, this is a very moving performance. Miah Persson seems well-cast as the child-like soprano in the last movement, which I too have always found a bit of an anticlimax after what has gone before. (But maybe Heaven is...) Fischer maintains the tension even in the slowest part at the beginning of the third movement, which is more "molto" than "poco" adagio here.
Klemperer's version is still my favourite, but this must come next.
Klemperer's version is still my favourite, but this must come next.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Characterless
In his fourth symphony Gustav Mahler aimed to express a child's vision of heaven (included the fear, suffering and death that gets one there), and a conductor needs to bear that in... Read more
Published on 31 May 2011 by Eric Shanes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Heaven
I really feel you can not get a better recording of this wonderful work than this one. Sumptuous recording, and the performance is superb; sensitive to the score, superbly... Read more
Published on 29 May 2010 by avl06
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