The early 2020s have seen
Mahler recordings from great conductors of the German-speaking world, recorded with state-of-the-art equipment in glittering detail.
Simon Rattle, however, has shown a preference for live recordings of
Mahler, for whom he has as much enthusiasm as any of his German and Austrian peers. He recorded the work live in 2008 with the
Berlin Philharmonic and also had a radio performance recorded before that. There is something to be said for this; the
Symphony No. 9 in D major is a giant work that stands or falls as much on its overall contours as on its small details, and in this recording, made live with the
Bavarian Radio Symphony in Munich in 2021,
Rattle excels in this respect. The performance marked
Rattle's recording debut with the orchestra and also served as a memorial for the recently deceased conductor
Bernard Haitink. There is very little audience noise of any kind, and the long pause at the end in
Haitink's memory is not retained, perhaps regrettably. The sound is not great, although the quiet conclusion comes off beautifully. There is nothing revolutionary about
Rattle's reading, but it holds together solidly as a single set of gestures. Sample the first movement, where the rapid changes of mood do not faze the conductor or players at all; there is none of the sense of lurching that sometimes bedevils
Mahler performances (or is intentionally cultivated).
Rattle is quite a bit to the fast side, offering a reading that is about ten minutes faster than average, but he is on firm ground here; he is very close to the tempo taken by
Bruno Walter, who premiered the work and knew what
Mahler wanted. There is no feeling of rushing, only of a clean narrative arc in which the finale loses none of its transcendence. If readings by
Thielemann et al. leave the feeling that the life has been sucked out of the music, try this fine live rendition, which appeared on classical best-seller charts in the fall of 2022. ~ James Manheim
