Bernstein's Mahler

The IMDB blurb talks of these being Vienna performances from the early 1970s. Yes...and no. The London Symphony Orchestra performs No.2 in Ely Cathedral, and the Israel Philharmonic are also in play for Das Lied Von Der Erde. The amazing performance of No.9 is given by the Vienna Philharmonic but in Berlin's Philharmonie, not in Vienna. The No.8 is, if memory serves, performed in Vienna but not at the Musikverein.

Bernstein was a very theatrical presence on the rostrum, determined to live the musical performance as extrovertly as possible. So he smiles, he laughs, he sings, he cries, he jumps, he shakes and rattles and rolls, and at times he looks like he has 1000 volts running through his baton. The Vienna Phil. Ought to have been right at home with this music but it took Bernstein from New York to teach it them. When he later went to the Berlin Philharmonic to give charity concerts of No.9 he found the orchestra hadn't touched the music for a decade or so. Bernstein was a great musical pedagogue and so if you are new to Mahler you could hardly do better than watch these films of a legendary proselytizer at the peak of his powers.

Leonard Bernstein is among my favourite Mahler interpreters and I was not disappointed by this production. Apart from the 9 completed symphonies this set includes Das Lied von der Erde and the Adagio from no.10, but none of the completed versions of the tenth, which Bernstein never recorded (nor I suspect conducted).

The DVDs are from live performances given in the 1970s and the picture shows its age in places, though the sound is very good for its vintage. This was Bernstein's golden age: the fiery young man had matured, but not to the level of some of the extended tempi that spoiled some of the recordings from his last decade. It is also worth noting that these performances were not conceived as a complete cycle, so were not performed chronologically, nor are they all with the same orchestra, though the Vienna Philharmonic has the lion's share. That they were not a noted Mahler orchestra at the time (despite the composer having been their conductor when he wrote most of these) is remarkable, that they did not initially respond to Bernstein's sometimes heart on sleeve way with Mahler is well documented, but in the end he won them round and the performances are mostly at least very good.

The 2nd is the famous performance from Ely Cathedral with LSO, shown at the time on British television. The setting does compromise the sound recording, but this is more than made up for by the fact that Bernstein is one of the few conductors to observe Mahler's instruction at two points in the finale for the soprano soloist initially to be part of the chorus, only later 'softly standing out', rather than being a soloist from the start. Mahler meant this and wrote it in the score, and it works so much better when it is observed.

It is a shame that the 7th is given with its internal movements in the order scherzo - andante rather than the other way round but this was quite common at that time, albeit now largely discredited.

The bonuses are well worth watching too. Bernstein is a great teacher (see also his Harvard lectures).