(This HMV Review is for new items and is only for reference. Novelty will NOT be available for used items despite mentioned bellow.)
This disc received the 1999 Grammy Award for "Best Orchestral Performance."
Pierre Boulez is perhaps best known as one of the guiding forces of post-WWII high modernism--he has continued serial composition long after its peak, and his recording repertoire is largely that of 20th-century modernists, from Bart k to Messiaen. He has, however, dipped into Romanticism both early--Berlioz--and late--Mahler. His Mahler symphonic cycle--the Fifth and Sixth with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Seventh with the Cleveland Orchestra preceded this recording--has received mixed reviews.
This Ninth, while cool and reserved by some standards, is a rich and fiery reading with the Chicago Symphony. This recording is a full five minutes longer than his live 1972 performance formerly available on the Memories label, and clearly shows the result of extended study of the work. Boulez and the orchestra move from jagged to smooth lines with ease without diminishing the effect of either or the contrasts between them. Boulez' success in this work is in some way understandable in light of the stylistic line between Mahler's composition and his own: Mahler was at the very leading edge of the Viennese late-Romantic modernism which led to Schoenberg's twelve-tone system from which the French avant-garde (which Boulez champions) followed.
REVIEWS:
BBC Music (5/98, p.66) - Performance: 4 (out of 5), Sound: 4 (out of 5) -
"...Boulez coaxes perfectly articulated solos from the Chicago Symphony wind and brass, unforgettably so for the flute's cautious first movement valediction. The symphony's ultimate farewell is resolutely unsentimental, but never icy; spiritual strength rather than pathos shines through."
