Mahler: Symphonie No. 7 - The Cleveland Orchestra / Pierre Boulez
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List Price:
$16.98
Special Price: $16.98
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Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028944775624
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 1996-09-17
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
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Editorial Reviews:
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This is a controversial perfomance. Pierre Boulez made his reputation as a conductor famous for his analytical, antiromantic approach, but in later years he seems to have mellowed. Not here, though. In many ways, the Seventh is Mahler's most modern symphony. The emotional impact of the music is less important than texture, orchestration, and musical architecture. In short, it's a highly abstract piece, and that's exactly how Boulez treats it. That means a relatively slow tempo in the first movement to achieve maximum clarity, and quick speeds in the two "night music" movements, minimizing their mysterious and romantic qualities, respectively. It's not an approach that everyone will warm to, but because classical-record collecting means having more than one version of the same music, it's always rewarding to sample different interpretations--provided that they're expressed with maximum conviction. And about this last point, there's no doubt at all. --David Hurwitz
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Musical Joke
Comment: Boulez is great in this symphony - by playing the "fast" movements slowly and the "slow" movements quickly, he portrays a musical joke. Not Boulez's joke on Mahler, but rather Mahler's joke on us. By playing over-the-top sentimental music in a completely unsentimental manner it makes a mockery of sentimentality. Mahler is too smart and too self aware to resist the opportunity to parody himself and his own echt-romantic tendencies. The result is this symphony, as performed by Boulez. In my opinion it's quite brilliant.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Full of insights, but also debatable
Comment: It's difficult to know what to make of this Seventh. After very positive experiences with earlier instalments of the Boulez cycle, particularly the Ninth and Das Lied, I approached it with great expectations that were not quite realized. More even than in other symphonies, Boulez makes eccentric tempo choices, that are within the limits of the tempo markings by Mahler, but often only by a hair's breadth. The first movement is very slow indeed, the main Allegro more an Andante, while the slow introduction is funereal. Articulation seems a bit fuzzy during the introduction, and the ungainly Allegro main theme sounds sluggish and lacking in impulse. After a while, however, the ear adapts and starts to register the heaps of felicitous detail. As ever, structural elements are put in their place unerringly, and climactic points pack a considerable punch. The final, march like incarnation of the main theme sounds thoroughly modern, clad in richly diverse and rhythmically complex percussion sounds.
The second and fourth movements are taken extremely fast; Boulez seems to have little patience with Mahler's fairy-tale moods, something that already marred his Minuet and Scherzo in the Third symphony. In this case, I was pleased with the effect on the Andante amoroso, to my ears the least interesting piece Mahler ever wrote: at least it doesn't drag and does not attempt to be the emotional outpouring it so clearly is not. Pointed rhythms and transparent detail do the rest: a truly lovely performance. The same can not be said of the second movement, which is simply too fast. The playing is gorgeous, but the mood isn't there. The Scherzo, however, is excellent, very dark and eerie, with the constant gurgling triplets well defined all through, and at a perfectly judged speed. In the finale, I was immediately struck (if only figuratively) by the very well-defined, very present timpani. I loved this, but it may prove a bit too much on repeated hearing. Boulez holds together this much debated piece pretty well, though the great climax is a dud: there, of all places, the timpani are inaudible (try Chailly instead, who marks the final return of the first movement theme with a roll on a giant drum that Mengelberg had constructed specifically for this one moment!). Nonetheless, most forte passages blaze and shine, while the tongue in cheek ballroom music does not elude Boulez either. Pity his bells blend in with the rest of the orchestra so completely as to be all but inaudible. The recorded sound is rich, detailed, and warm; only was I bothered by somewhat muffled sounding horns, whose stopped notes tend to be lost. Also, there was a printing error on my copy, resulting in two brief silences about 13" into the finale.
I will return to this recording once in a while for its rich detail and structural insights; but it is not a first choice for anyone wanting a Mahler 7 to live with. For that, try Gielen; or Bernstein (DG), for a no holds barred roller coaster ride. And I wish Philips would reissue Haitinks formidable digital remake with the Concertgebouw Orkest!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The worst Mahler 7th
Comment: When it comes to musical narrative, Mr. Boulez is at a loss. His specialty is conceptual music: Music which expresses a musical idea. Well, all music does that. But some music goes further to explore emotion, and to that end, the concept is a means to an end: Expression.
The Seventh is Mahler's Night Symphony, emerging in the daylight in the final movement. Such things are hardly significant to Boulez in his reading. If only phrases like 'Allegro risoluto, ma non troppo', 'Flott', 'Tempo I', 'Molto pesante e misurato', 'Nicht eilen', 'Ganz zuruckhaltend', 'Moderato', 'Wieder Tempo I (Allegro)' meant anything to him, the first movement might have had some shape to it. These indications not only give character to the music, but define themes and form (here sonata allegro). The impression is that Boulez steamrolls through the music, barely (an exaggeration, really) giving credence to these tempo fluctuations. As a result, the first movement is episodic and formless. Too bad, because formally, this movement is one of the tightest Mahler wrote.
Again, in the second movement, '...molto moderato (andante)', 'Gehalten', 'Poco meno mosso', etc., we have tempo steamrolling, the sense of one tempo in a multifariously tempo-ed movement. The movement comes off episodic and flat.
One would expect Boulez to bring out the modernisms in the 3rd movement. All of those sforzandi, accents, accelerations against a set tempo. Surprisingly, the impression is bland. I think Boulez is so concerned about tempering the balance, these bumps and bangs in the night just don't register. Again, tempo steamrolling doesn't help matters.
4. Satz NACHTMUSIK - Andante amoroso. This would have to be the least 'loving' andante I've ever heard, or could imagine. Boulez' tempo is too fast. Mahler takes pains to shorten 16th notes by adding 32nd notes and rests, giving character to a motive which runs througout the movement. At this speed, they are impossible to play convincingly - the character is lost. Again, tempo steamrolling results in flatness. And the mandolin and guitar, the serenade instruments required for this movement only, are 'blended' into the texture to the point of almost nonexistence.
As for the finale, it contains some of the most frequent tempo changes in any movement of Mahler. To make this rondo finale work, all of these changes must be felt and exaggerated. With nothing more than musical indications on the page, it is no wonder that Boulez fails to render any coherent form to this movement. So much for daylight.
The playing of the Cleveland Orchestra is very good, but surprisinly tentative. I heard them live in New York doing the same work with their regular conductor Franz Welser-Most. The playing was more natural and confident. It was a terrific Mahler 7th.
If you want to 'know' Mahler's 7th Symphony, I would recommend Chailly, Bernstein (2nd recording), Barenboim, or Abbado.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thrilling... exhilarating... ravishing
Comment: I enjoy the Boulez Mahler performances because he doesn't pretend to know everything about what Mahler was trying to say, or be confused or intimidated by this highly concentrated score, no matter how complex its textures. Instead, the conductor lays out the music for the listener to decide for him- or herself, in a lucid and straightforward way, often with vivid energy and great lyricism. I believe that Mahler himself may not have always been successful in understanding what he was trying to convey, but he got it down without inhibition on the page anyway, to have his say, and I believe this uncensored obedience to the creative muse is at the heart of the magical allure of music itself.
In this particular recording Boulez is completely sure-footed and once again portrays Mahler as a modernists who was looking ahead to the future and not merely to the past, but not without tenderness or emotion about the exploration of the universal human condition - everything that can happen to a person in a lifetime - all the highs... lows... sorrows... joys.
Each Mahler symphony is like an entirely self-contained and fascinating world, and in the 7th, Mahler includes every musical impulse he can think of while he has the chance - fascinating to digest and absorb over repeated listenings. When I listen to Mahler by Boulez, I hear a performance where the conductor is completely fascinated by Mahler's score and he does his best to get himself out of the way and let Mahler's complex world of musical impulses unfold directly without undue interpretation and interference: to speak for themselves beautifully in an entirely uncluttered and inevitable manner. I would not want to be without this thrilling performance: Mahler trying to say it all, with more incredible symphonies yet to come.
Customer Rating:
Summary: if only the two Nachtmusik movements were slower
Comment: I think that this a very good Mahler 7th - one that would have been even better, if Boulez had relaxed a bit more in the two Nachtmusik movements. Boulez clocks in around 14 minutes for the first Nachtmusik, and well less than 11 minutes in the second one! That's fast, folks. But on the other side of the equation, Boulez's 23 minute first movement makes it easier to follow and digest Mahler's complex polyphony and thoroughly modern harmonies. Combined with textures that are more chamber like than usual (Boulez was greatly influenced by Hans Rosbaud in this work), it makes for a seventh Mahler that's not only devoid of excess sentiment, but shifts the work into the upper pantheon of great 20th century works. By the way, Boulez's 17:45 timing for the finale is pretty much exactly the same as Bernstein (Sony); Levine/CSO; Abbado/CSO; Ozawa/BSO, and Haitink (1969). But I find that Boulez's somewhat lighter textures help in making the finale seem more light hearted than usual - not a bi-product one would expect from the allegedly "cold" Pierre Boulez. This is a serious competitor among single disc versions of the Mahler 7th.
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