Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intense and Magical, 22 Nov 2000
This is possibly Mahler's best known symphony but sadly this is mainly due to the Adagietto movement made famous by the film "Death in Venice". Those that only recognise that movement, wonderful as it is, are sadly missing out. From the trumpet fanfare of the opening to the final majestic choral, Bernstein produces a reading that shines with inspiration and intensity. He catches the mood of the seemingly banal third movement brilliantly and the orchestral playing throughout the whole symphony is faultless. Highly recommended.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blazing Bernstein ( nevertoolate #016 ), 20 Jun 2009
Recorded live at the Frankfurt am Main Alte Oper in 1987,
just three years before his death, Maestro Bernstein's deft
hand and searing vision leads The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
through an almost peerless performance of Gustav Mahler's
fifth symphony.
To the end Bernstein's huge flamboyant personality, gargantuan ego
and wild maverick spirit burned like a bright flame in the musical
firmament. This wonderful recording reveals that it continues
to burn just as brightly still.
Having said that, Bernstein is not everybody's cup of tea.
He was a man whose grand gestures were trully GRAND ! A little
too piquant, a little too overwrought for some.
Compared, for example, to Barbirolli's 1969 rendition of this
mighty work with the New Philharmonia (another great performance)
Bernstein's Mahler 5 is a veritable Leviathan. Barbirolli's is
a more reflective, "inward-looking" performance, perhaps reflecting
the conductor's innate humility.
There is more than enough room in the world for myriad
interpretations, of course but Bernstein's will always
have a special place in my hairy heart.
It's a real rollercoaster of a ride, full of the kind of
thrills which make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
Bernstein's grasp of Mahler's extreme dynamic variations is
never less than masterful. Listen to the Second Movement's
blazing final tutti melt away into the haunted bitter violin
and woodwind shards of its final bars. Gloriously unresolved !
The Adagietto is given perhaps one of the most beautiful
interpretations that this sublime piece has ever received.
Starting with the barest whisper (almost as if prayer might
still be a possibility in a godless world) the Vienna strings
have never sounded better.
The Finale, with its mighty final chorale, is magnificent.
As the final coda breaks like a great wave against
a cliff we are left in no doubt that we have been on a
very special journey indeed.
Essential.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing, 10 Jul 2009
This performance has some good qualities - eloquent playing from all sections of the orchestra, atmospheric interludes in the scherzo, a magnificent conclusion to the finale - but as so often Bernstein ruins things with appallingly self-indulgent lingering. He wildly exaggerates the tragic elements of the first two movements, adding layer upon layer of tearful grief onto music which, when conducted with more wisdom and restraint, conveys everything it needs to. Listen to Simon Rattle (BPO) and Bruno Walter (NYPO) for a more measured and far far more effective approach. Worst of all, Bernstein stretches the Adagietto out to the point where the music completely fails to hang together - it becomes a series of incoherent sighs and sobs and totally falls apart, the musical line destroyed by the conductor's ghastly exaggerations. No: taken as a whole this performance will not do. Rattle and Walter allow the music to speak for itself by drawing out, with maximum effectiveness, what is there, and heaping nothing further upon it. Their honesty and care do the music fuller justice than Bernstein's outrageous excesses, which insult both the music and the listener.
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