Mahler: Symphony No.7, London Symphony Orchestra / Valery Gergiev

This can be a tricky symphony to pull off, as indeed Mahler found for himself on the 17th of September 1908 when confronted with a somewhat bemused, if polite reception at its premiere in Prague. Although in all fairness, perhaps this fact lay more with the ears of the audience, rather than in the composer’s control of quicksilver gear-shifts, abrupt modulations, seismic textural transitions and of course his by-now-infamous expansions of both temporal length and instrumental height. So the performance challenges are clear: how to weld highly contrasting fragments into a cohesive whole?

Gergiev meets these challenges with aplomb in this exemplary live recording. The individual passages are pinned down with a highly-drilled precision, the LSO’s woodwind section should take an extended bow for their handling of Mahler’s devilishly incessant arabesques. And in turn these passages are knitted into charming movements, the second Nachtmusik movement being particularly affecting. The strings, both bowed and plucked (guitar and mandolin are present), swell and glissando, strum and tremolo with a genuine delicacy and feeling, without a trace of sentimentality (though with perhaps a judicious touch of irony!). The Finale is a joyous riot, strings scuttling around a texture studded with mock-heroic brass chorales. Gergiev wields the reins with abandon.

But what is even more impressive is the handling of the large-scale architecture. This is (contra some naysayers) a balanced work and Gergiev convincingly shapes this sometimes quixotic animal, avoiding the common pitfall of ignoring Mahler’s repeated commands to Nicht schleppend!. Indeed this is a brisker affair at 74’ than the live Rattle/Birmingham Symphony at 77’ and even that of Mahler himself at 74’. Gergiev understands that this is fundamentally a humorous, though not vulgar, work with a wise, humane heart. A mercurial account of Mahler’s vertiginous sphinx of a symphony.