Mahler Ninth Symphony/ Herbert Blomstedt - western classical

By Narendra Kusnur

Album: Mahler Ninth Symphony
Artiste: Conductor Herbert Blomstedt and the Bramberg Symphony Orchestra
Genre: Western classical
Label: BR Classical
Rating: ****

Since he did a majority of his work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Austro-Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler is often considered a bridge between the late Romantic and early Modern eras of western classical music. He spent a lot of time conducting too, and as a composer, came up with concepts that were unique and innovative.

Written in 1908 and 1909, Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is a favourite for many orchestras and conductors. While its premiere featured Bruno Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, popular recordings have been led by Herbert Von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. It was the composer’s last symphony, and he didn't get to see it being performed live as he passed away in 1911 while writing his 10th.

Unlike most symphonies which followed the fast-slow-fast-superfast format, Mahler was known to change the tempo structure. Some of his symphonies were in five or six movements, as against the standard four, and his Eighth Symphony was a choral work in two parts, and one of the largest in its genre in terms of scale. He also wrote longer symphonies, and his Third is considered to be the longest in the standard repertoire.

This recording of the Ninth Symphony features Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, who leads the Bramberg Symphony Orchestra of Germany in a concert that took place last year. For someone who was 91 when it was performed, Blomstedt shows acute sharpness and perfection. The orchestra displays the right colour and sombreness, echoing the darkness the symphony was associated with.

The work has four movements. While the beginning is in D Major, the finale is in D Sharp Major. The opening movement, an andante comodo, starts at a leisurely pace, picks up tempo and slows down again to sound like a funeral march. The violin, trumpet, clarinet, tuba, harp and piccolo are prominent.

In the second movement, a series of dances is played. This includes the landler, a rustic German form which evokes the aura of the countryside. The composer changes the mood in a manner that it doesn’t seem like a dance.

While the third movement is a rondo played with energy and speed, the finale is a very slow adagio which begins with strings and takes the form of an elegy, a lament. Mahler displayed plenty of feel in his slower parts, and that comes across clearly here.

Some observers have associated this symphony with the ‘Curse of the Ninth’, considering that composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Antonin Dvorak and Ralph Vaughan Williams also died after their ninth symphony. Others have noted that this is actually Mahler’s 10th symphony, as he had not given a number to Das Lied von der Erde, a symphonic song cycle he composed. Whichever way, this is an intense piece of work, and Blomstedt and the Bramberg Symphony Orchestra do full justice in bringing out its intricacy.