(This HMV Review is for new items and is only for reference. Novelty will NOT be available for used items despite mentioned bellow.)
Gustav Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony is known to historians as the composer's first official blockbuster hit, and coincidentally, it was also German conductor Otto Klemperer's favorite. In fact, Peter Hayworth wrote in "Conversations with Klemperer" that there was "no music closer to Klemperer's heart than the 'Resurrection' Symphony." On this disc, Klemperer shows everyone else why this Mahler masterpiece has stayed in his heart so long.
The album begins with the haunting funeral march, which features a biting tremolo from the Philharmonia Orchestra's string section that sets the tone for the rest of the delightfully disturbing album. Klemperer makes no reservations during the powerful melodies, giving the brass, percussion and string sections a glaring green light to extract as much sound as possible from their instruments.
Despite the fierceness that Klemperer is able to convey during the passionate sections, he switches gears severely for intricately colored, slower, analytical sections in the second and third movements. But the melancholy mood only lasts a short while. When it's time for the finale, Klemperer reveals Mahler's temperamental spirit at its best, with a series of queer harmonies and startling eruptions that leave Klemperer's heart completely exposed.
REVIEWS:
International Record Review (4/00, p.35) - "...It is hard to conceive of a finer studio-based performance of Mahler's Second Symphony than Klemperer's, and it is impertinent even to begin to criticize it, given the conductor's personal contact with the composer..."
