Mahler: Symphony No. 7; Simon Rattle, conductor; Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks. BR Klassik 900217.
By now the notion that Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony is an enigmatic work has become something of a cliché. But I don't think it's very enigmatic at all. A small amount of imagination (and a touch of homework) make things pretty straightforward. The composer's wife Alma authoritatively associated the second Nachtmusik movement with the poetry of Joseph von Eichendorff, identifying it with "murmuring springs and German Romanticism." Furthermore, Mahler had been conducting Tristan und Isolde in the time leading up to his Seventh Symphony's composition. This opera's second act is a lengthy glorification of the nighttime world, where the eponymous lovers cozily resist the coming of day when they have to face their sticky situation. It is not at all difficult to hear echoes of Tristan throughout Mahler's 7th. These things together make it virtually plain that the so-called Song of the Night is a musical tribute to the nocturnal world in all of its glories, real and imagined. The finale is a rude awakening to match the final act of Tristan. It marks the dream's end; mundane reality takes over. But these associations have been lost upon many commentators. The most fatuous of these folks might be Theodor W. Adorno, whose lambasting of the Seventh's finale is an epic failure of imagination. (See Adorno, Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy.)
It's true that Adorno's take on Mahler's Seventh makes that of Simon Rattle in this recording look good. But this is a pretty low bar, and Rattle has a problem that both men share in their respective mediums: too much intellect and not enough intuition. This Mahler 7's sound is pristine, its performance decisions meticulous, its control impeccable, and its playing gorgeous. But Rattle just doesn't really "get" the music on a gut level. There's little feeling of "German Romanticism," because Rattle doesn't have that much feeling for Romanticism to begin with. His musical sensibility is a cerebral one, with a focus on sonority and experimentation. His natural home is with material that flatters these tendencies: compositions by Stravinsky, Bartók, Adès, and so forth. It isn't with anything that calls for lusty emotional expression. To be a successful Mahler conductor, one must have an instinct for his passions. Instead, Rattle can only wield the feeble substitute of calculation.
So what specifically contributes to this impression? Occasionally it's the tempi. The first movement should at times be fitful in order to create narrative suspense. But Rattle's pace can better be described as sluggish. Worse still is his quick tempo in the fourth movement. It just feels mechanical, with no glimmer of the night-time fountains and colors that an Eichendorff-ish setting would suggest. This movement just hums along like a sewing machine, with about as much feeling. We get a fairly humdrum finale, too. But here for once Rattle's coldness is exactly what's needed: this is the bustling break of day that dispels the magic of the first four movements. Think King Mark's men busting in on Tristan and Isolde, disrupting their ethereal night-time union. But it's too bad that Rattle never established much of a dream in the first place. "Waking up" here therefore feels a bit indifferent.
Even more than overall tempi, Rattle's phrase shapings betray his lack of affinity. The simplest way to understand this might be to measure the present performance against those of conductors with a better Mahlerian grip. Observe Leonard Bernstein leading the NYPhil (DG 419-211-2), for instance. There is gusto in his dotted rhythms, and melodic turns of phrase are shaped in ways that relay an easy grasp of Mahler's expressive mannerisms. Rattle by comparison tries to finesse his way through, rarely seeing the forest for the trees. Similarly to how I described Yuja Wang's stilted Rachmaninoff (here), he almost tries to emulate someone who attitudinally understands this music better than he does.
Much is often made of Mahler being one of the first 20th-century "modernists" in music. If you have read my musicological writing, you know how much I detest the over- and mis-use of this word. If Mahler was a Modernist (or even a modernist), he was still much more of a 19th-century Romantic in temperament. I think Simon Rattle is psychologically the reverse. If (as I believe) far fewer people need to be conducting Mahler, and trying to cash in on his present popularity, Rattle should be one of the first to seek pastures more conducive to his gifts. His Mahler 7 here is highly competent...even more competent than his earlier recording with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI 0777 7 54344 2 2). It's just not very magical. And if the Song of the Night needs one thing to come off properly, it's magic.
Recommendation: Avoid; instead go for the Bernstein recording mentioned earlier...or the celebrated one by Claudio Abbado and the CSO (DG 445-513-2).
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