Mahler: Symphony No. 8 Sir Georg Solti & Chicago Symphony Orchestra

• Symphony No.8 in E flat - Symphony of a Thousand Part One: Hymnus Veni creator spiritus
• 1 Veni creator spiritus 01:27
• 2 Imple superna gratia 04:25
• 3 Infirma nostri corporis 06:20
• 4 Accende lumen sensibus 04:43
• 5 Veni, Creator...Da gaudiorum praemia 03:49
• 6 Gloria sit Patri Domino 02:37
• Part Two: Final scene from Goethe's Faust
• 7 Poco adagio: Waldung, sie schwankt heran 14:11
• 8 Ewiger Wonnebrand 01:34
• 9 Wie Felsenabgrund mir zu Füßen 04:41
• 10 Gerettet ist das edle Glied 03:02
• 11 Uns bleibt ein Erdenrest 02:59
• 12 Höchste Herrscherin der Welt 08:07
• 13 Bei der Liebe, die den Fussen 04:53
• 14 Neige, neige, du Ohnegleiche 05:18
• 15 Blicket auf zum Retterblick 04:46
• 16 Alles Vergängliche 06:46
• Total Runtime 01:19:38

Info for Mahler: Symphony No. 8

Sir Georg Solti's 1971 recording on Decca has been a market leader since it first appeared. It is now available in Decca's latest 'Legends' re-mastering (4609722). For many this has always been the version to have, regularly topping the list of recommendations. It was recorded in the Sofiensaal in Vienna but the orchestra is the Chicago Symphony who were then on European tour and the sessions were crammed into what must have been a tight schedule. You would never know it from the excellence of the results, though you might argue the character of the performance might have been influenced by the need to get in and get on with things. But then again there is so much here that chimes in with the rest of Solti's Mahler. I've never been a particular admirer of him in this composer. But, in spite of the reservations I'm going to spell out, I reckon this his most successful Mahler recording. He delivers all the thrust and 'impetuoso' you could possibly want from the first note on. Indeed, he delivers both right through Part I even when I don't think he should. There are passages where he relaxes a little, the early 'Imple superna gratia' for example, but generally the undercurrent is to press onwards. The soloists are well balanced and it will very soon emerge that this recording boasts what I believe the best team of all. The choruses are excellent too, as can be heard in 'Infirma nostri' which is matched by a real sense of tension and foreboding from Solti. The playing of the orchestra in the short orchestral passage before this choral passage also tells us we are in for a treat in that department, but I will come to have serious misgivings about the appropriateness of the orchestral timbre the Chicago orchestra offers overall. Right the way through, in spite of their matchless virtuosity and thrilling drive, there is a hard-edged quality to the brass and strings I find all too wrong in Mahler and which, for me, always disfigured Solti's recordings with them.

In the Bernstein recording I found the great central double fugue at 'Accende lumen sensibus' too fast. Solti is no slouch here either, but such is the excellence of his orchestra and choruses he pulls off this passage at this speed with distinction. This is a roller-coaster ride that will leave you breathless. Grandeur to be heard in Horenstein and Abbado in this passage is largely lost, but at least Solti takes a specific view and succeeds. As he does also in the close of Part I where the dynamism, a word that sums up Solti's whole approach to this symphony, rounds off an experience no lover of this work ought to miss, even though I'm still left, as I will be at the end of the whole work under Solti, feeling short-changed. But more of that later.

The orchestra plays the prelude to Part II wonderfully. Though I remain in my belief that their sharp sound is more suited to Bartok than Mahler, brass especially. No doubting its technical brilliance, but the Vienna Philharmonic should have been sitting where they were. I did like the way the whispered choral passage that steals in afterwards comes over so seamless and in such fine balance, though. An example, I suppose, of where studio recording can score over 'live' recording. Especially when, as here, no attempt is made to replicate concert hall balance.

I mentioned before how I believe this recording boasts the best solo team. Pater Ecstaticus is John Shirley-Quirk whose perfect enunciation and rapture are a pure joy. Pater Profundis is Martti Talvela who vividly paints the landscapes with Solti in splendid support, the orchestra recalling the first movement of the Third Symphony through vivid bass shudders and penetrating woodwind trills. (High voltage stuff at 'Oh Gott ! beschwichtige die Gedanken'.) Doctor Marianus, the work's star part, boasts Rene Kollo on top form, especially in 'Blicket auf' which is a burst of pure ecstasy at what is to come. The women are no less fine and so sad to recall that three of them - Helen Watts, Lucia Popp and Arleen Auger - are no longer with us. Listen to Heather Harper's top line at 'Gloria patri Domini' in Part I for a moment of pure magic.

The closing pages see the brass of the Chicago Symphony towering as always. In later performances I have heard Solti give of this symphony he drove the end far too much. But hear he's more alive to the grandeur of Mahler's vision and it sums up his whole approach well - dynamic, extravagant, technically rock solid. I did mention earlier about feeling 'short changed' at the end. I don't refer to the performance itself, quite the opposite. It's the nature of the performance as described that always stays in my mind, so that what I miss is any lasting impression of the music of Gustav Mahler as represented in this symphony. (Tony Duggan, MusicWeb International)

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra
John Shirley-Quirk, Baritone
Martti Talvela, Bass
Helen Watts, Mezzo-Soprano
Lucia Popp, Soprano
Arleen Augér, Soprano
Heather Harper, Soprano
Vienna State Opera Chorus
Sir Georg Solti, Conductor

96kHz, 24-bit Super Digital Transfer

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