Mahler: Symphony No.3, Petra Lang, contralto

Once a work of extreme rarity (its first modern Berlin performance (under Barbirolli, just issued on Testament) dates from 1969), in the last three or four recent years Mahler’s Third Symphony has had several outstanding new recordings from Rattle, Boulez and Abbado. Now Riccardo Chailly has added the Third to his ongoing cycle with the Royal Concertgebouw. I don’t normally begin by commenting on the recorded sound, but in this case I must; it’s fabulous. The deep perspectives of the Concertgebouw acoustic are perfectly caught, and the offstage elements, the sidedrum in the first movement and the third movement’s posthorn solo, sound magical here. You can even tell whether the timpanist is using one stick or two; the delightfully old-fashioned sounding Concertgebouw percussion is a constant asset throughout the performance. I haven’t had a chance to hear it in its SACD form, but even in stereo it’s right up there with the best recordings I’ve ever heard.

One of the challenges to the conductor is to make this now-familiar score sound radical; after all, there never was a more extraordinary symphonic first movement than this, Mahler himself said that “it has almost ceased to be music…it is hardly anything but the sounds of nature.” Chailly and his hoarse-toned lower strings conjure up a world devoid of life (Mahler at one point thought of calling this movement “What the mountain rocks tell me”). Later on, the superb Concertgebouw brasses almost out-Bernstein Bernstein in the wild Ivesian marching-band music. Chailly, as has been his way throughout his Mahler series, does not exaggerate the peculiarly Viennese sweetness in the music, and his control of line is a reminder of his mastery of bel canto repertoire. Crucially, he doesn’t take the colossal finale too slowly; his gently flowing tempo feels just right.

A feature of Chailly’s Mahler cycle has been a series of valuable rarities as makeweights. This time we have Mahler’s Bach Suite, a compilation drawn from Bach’s Second and Third Suites. Not surprisingly, Mahler favoured sharply etched lines in his arrangements; really, he didn’t do very much with the original scores beyond writing a fully worked-out continuo part. The Royal Concertgebouw seem to enjoy the experience, and Chailly adopts an unfashionably leisurely tempo for the famous air. Very highly recommended.