This recording of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle is one of the best (if not the best) recordings of Mahler's Ninth I have ever heard. The recording is a close-up, so every little detail is noticeable. But this is not a bad thing; the Berlin Philharmonic play beautifully, as one would expect. The beginning of the first movement under Rattle is one of the finest openings I have ever heard, helped, I am sure, by the close-in recording balance. The second violins (placed to the right) play with tenderness; it is hard to imagine that the story will turn to the unpleasant areas of life so quickly. At the first climax of the movement, Rattle makes it clear that something big is happening--that "farewell" is looming--but does not over-exaggerate it; this is evidenced most clearly in the restraint found in the timpanist's playing. This was a good decision; for when the third and biggest climax comes, it has all of the poison and horrific power you could want. I can only imagine what the crashing timpani would have sounded like in the concert hall. Mahler gives the listener a sense of peace shortly after the final climax, with the return of the main melody; the unpleasant, earthy texture of the music is replaced by warmer melodies that lead back to the simple--but yet so powerful--main "Farewell" theme. It is only after listening to the first movement in its entirety that I can conclude that this movement tells of a basic love for life, even during times of trial. There are dark portions--and plenty of them--but warmth and love does prevail. And that is as it should be. The second movement under Sir Simon Rattle is again one of the best performances I have heard yet. While Sir John Barbirolli's recording does come close, Rattle still takes the top spot. In an interview that Rattle gave on this work, he described this movement as "everything Mahler hated about the countryside." And it certainly does have that folksy feel to it; the violins again open the main melody with a crunch and some of the best marcato playing this young Mahlerite has ever heard. This movement's first theme is sometimes played as a smooth dance, totally missing out on the harsh, awkward feeling that Mahler calls for--Lorin Maazel's recent recording with the New York Philharmonic is a classic example--but not under Sir Simon. The first two themes--and their subsequent reappearances throughout the movement--are rough and extremely brash, but the playing always maintains a polished excellence. This movement gives the listener a sense of both love and hate; some good, some bad. The third movement Rondo-Burleske is harsh like the previous movement, but in a different way. Simon Rattle described this movement as "everything Mahler hated about the city," and his interpretation fits that description perfectly. The movement is a lot heavier on brass than the Landler; that takes away the somewhat nostalgic feeling portrayed in the second movement, but it is okay. Things get right down to business from the outset; you know instantly that it is going to be a wild ride. Of interest are the fantastic crunching sounds the principal violinist makes in the solo passage a little way into the movement; the music is not pretty, and Rattle seems determined that that point be driven home. Only at one point in the movement does the melody become uplifting, but it is quickly swept into the musical tornado that is soon to come. After relative calm for a time, the music suddenly plunges off the deep end. And here, as the movement comes to a close, does Rattle begin to speed the orchestra up--like a car that is out of control. The movement ends with a crash and a sense of desperation that leaves the listener thinking, "What just happened?" It is a movement that offers little consolation; there is not much of a silver lining. If I could describe the movement in four words, my description would be thus: "reality put to music." The opening of the valedictory final movement of the Ninth is, like the rest of this work, one of the best I have ever heard. It fits perfectly with what one would expect from this recording; the string melody--the "Abide with Me" theme--at the beginning is incredibly lush and detailed, digging deep. For that matter, the entire movement under Sir Simon is heartbreaking in its honest, simple portrayal of leave-taking and the emotions surrounding it. It offers no easy answers, that is true; but neither does it lead to depression or speak too strongly of one specific emotion when the subject at hand can encompass so many. While to some extent the first and especially the two inner movements lacked warmth, this movement most certainly does not. It is as if all of Mahler's feelings of anger and dislike about the world are gone; there is pain and unpleasantness a plenty, but it is of a different--more profound--nature. I have heard it said that it is at a time of parting from someone we care for that we tend to remember only the good, and I think that that was Mahler's idea in this movement. Rattle does not hold on desperately to every note the way some other conductors do; he leads his orchestra through the movement in a gentle, straightforward manner that suggests a noble resignation to the inevitable farewell that must take place. I know there are a lot of recordings of Mahler's Ninth out there, and a lot of them very good in their own ways. I have heard a few of them, and I have heard enough to know that Rattle's Berlin recording of this work is the most satisfying overall. Highly recommended.

I always have a hard time writing reviews for "experiential" products like music or TV shows. Do I comment on how the music makes me feel or on the technical characteristics of the delivery and encoding? With this album, the objective was clear. This rendition of Mahler's 9th took my breath away. I've been comparing it to other renditions and nothing has been able to supplant this recording in my mind. It is simply stellar. The nuances and emotion that pour out of it from the very beginning always affix me to my chair. I bought the CD after first purchasing this on iTunes. This one is going into the permanent, personal collection of all-things-good and I wanted to be sure I had a FLAC or AAC encoding of it.

I bought this recording on the strength of Tony Duggan's recommendation. (For those of you who don't know the name, Duggan's written a comprehensive critique of most of the existing Mahler recordings available on the Internet [what isn't now?] that he's updated occasionally.) Duggan was so impressed by Rattle's interpretation that he elevated it to the status of "first choice" among recordings of the Mahler 9th, arguing that it was a particularly good choice for a listener who didn't already own the best recordings of the symphony. Well, he's certainly correct that it's an impressive achievement, not least because the BPO has Mahler's music at their fingertips The sound, of course, is state-of-the-art (not a major consideration with me who am not an audiophile) and if you love Mahler and the 9th in particular, you should purchase this CD without reservations. Still, is it a recording that I'll go back to as often as, say, Barbirolli's with the same orchestra? Or even Horenstein's with less stellar musicians? I don't think so, but I'm glad to have it for occasional listening.

Rattle has a reputation for being persnickety. Worrying every note. Personally, I like most of Rattle's work. Impeded flow, I don't think so, but I understand how that reputation was earned. His Mahler 2 and 6 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, both EMI, are among my favorite versions. These were before he got that over-engineered reputation. That reputation may no longer fit. This recording with the Berliner Philharmoniker on EMI is simply the best. Hands down. The earlier generation: Walter, Barbirolli and Klemperer in particular, put out excellent versions. But Rattle here has it all together. If you are going to own just one Mahler 9, this is it.

Didn't know that Rattle was so good at Mahler. This Ninth is the equal of Karajan's two great versions with this same orchestra. Rattle may have an even better more ambient sound for this work. Very enjoyable.

This is a staggering account of this magnificent and deeply moving symphony. Every time I hear this work, I hear new things. Rattle's effortless insightful reading makes the work shine.

Brilliant

In my opinion one if the best interpretations of Mahler's Ninth. In particular the first and fourth movements are exceptional. Such an intense Mahler sound. Fantastic.

Porte-flambeau d'EMI Classics, Simon Rattle apporte un nouveau tribut à la tradition symphonique allemande en enregistrant la 9e de Mahler. Après plusieurs écoutes attentives - c'est le moins que l'on puisse faire avant de porter un quelconque jugement sur une œuvre de cette importance - ce qui apparaît comme une évidence, c'est que cette version ne manque pas d'éléments de séduction. Sous une allure faussement sereine, si la modernité de la partition saute immanquablement aux oreilles, elle ne dissimule pas pour autant ses véritables traits sous un masque d'apparence. Témoignage d'une période difficile de la vie du compositeur, elle laisse filtrer une grande partie de ses nombreux états d'âme. Mais encore faut-il que les musiciens soient acquis à sa cause. Sous la remarquable impulsion du chef britannique, l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Berlin étale sa rutilante mécanique avec le plus grand soin. L'homogénéité de ses pupitres n'étant plus à vanter, on se rabattra sur son engagement sans faille et, tel un animal à sang chaud, sur la régularité de ses pulsations. Captés en concert sur les lieux mêmes de leur résidence, les interprètes sont d'une assurance extraordinaire, tout autant sur les chemins paisibles longeant les pianissimos les plus imperceptibles que sur les pentes escarpées surplombant les vertigineux abîmes mahlériens. De la délivrance au chaos ou de l'épanchement à la révolte, si dans cette avant-dernière symphonie le compositeur se débattait avec son sombre destin et ses éternels fantômes, Simon Rattle, quant à lui, entretient le mythe avec une passion qui force l'admiration, tout comme le fit Karajan, de la même place, un quart de siècle plus tôt. C'est vous dire !

BPOが演奏したマーラーの交響曲第九番の演奏史においてカラヤンのライヴ盤と並びもっとも成功した演奏の成果であろう。特に第一楽章と第三楽章がずば抜けている。なかでも第一楽は、マゼールがVPOを指揮した同じ楽章とそれのように地獄の釜の蓋が開くかのような感を聴者に与える。また、第三楽章の悪魔の高笑いを思わせる演奏には聴者は舌を巻かざるを得ない。

The first thing to say about this recording is that we have an absolutely virtuoso orchestra playing for a conductor who knows exactly what he wants and how to get it, from the smallest detail to the broadest overall picture. They are abetted by recording engineers who produce a wonderfully detailed and immediate sound-picture - much better, I would suggest than their counterparts for Rattle in Vienna. It's therefore over the performance that the discussions start. It is naturally not so very different from Rattle's previous performance with the Vienna Philharmonic; the timings for each movement are within seconds of each other with the exception of the Finale which is a little over a minute longer (mostly in the final two pages of the score). There are differences, though. There are times in the first movement, it seems to me, when Rattle has become a little more affected in his search for truth in the detail. The andante comodo of the opening, for example, is a tad slow for an andante, forcing Rattle into rather exaggerated speeding up for the allegro sections and concomitant slowing downs to return to that main tempo and leaving nowhere to go for something like the plotzlig sehr massig und zuruckhalden (suddenly very moderate and held back) without grinding to a halt. And the first note of the main theme when it returns at the start of the recapitulation is hung on to for far too long in the attempt to point up this milestone in the architecture of the movement (to mix metaphors). Listen to Maderna to hear what a special moment this can be. There are big pluses, too, of course. Rattle always makes clear just how important the roles played by those fragmentary phrases from the introduction before the 1st subject comes in become in the main body of the movement. I don't think I was ever quite aware how pervasive the little flutter on the violas is. And he has such faith in his players that he can give his soloists enormous freedom within his overall conception; the duet for horn and flute in the recapitulation is gorgeously played by the two of them. And the coda is disarmingly beautiful with magical woodwind playing and a perfectly judged amount of portamento from the solo violin. The landler also suffers from some of the same faults of affectation - the rit on the first note of the main theme, for example. And Mahler's three different tempi are a bit extreme for comfort. Tempo II is a bit fast and Tempo III a bit slow, leading Rattle again into rather exaggerated marked and, unusually for Rattle, unmarked ritardandi. The Rondo Burleske is another matter, though. This is quite superb. Several other reviewers have complained about the tempo for the central Trio being too fast to be the truly visionary contrast they expect. But I think they have missed Rattle's point. Mahler's autograph score carries the superscription `To my brothers in Apollo', a phrase which has never been satisfactorily explained, I think. Most take it as a dig at Mahler's critics. I disagree. I think it refers to Nietzsche's Apollonian/Dionysian divide (Nietzsche, remember, was a writer whose work Mahler knew well and even set to music in the Third Symphony). The irony, the Burleske of the movement's title, refers, I suspect, to the musical pedants who think that fugue and counterpoint should be clean, clear, objective, Apollonian almost to the point of asceticism. But what could be more Dionysian than the abandon of Mahler's Rondo. He has taken his mature mastery of counterpoint and put it to very different use than we expect from the great masters like Bach or Beethoven or even that great ironist, Shostakovich, in his Preludes and Fugues. And this, I suspect is Rattle's point. I have never heard so cohesive a reading of this movement. It is certainly bitterly ironic. But it is one long fluid stream of fugue, double fugue and elaborate counterpoint. And that includes the central section where counterpoint is just as important, despite the beautiful nature of the theme of the Trio pointing forward to the Finale, and where the infiltration of the main fugue's material has seldom felt so well integrated. On a lighter note, don't you just love an orchestra that can play the prestissimo ending that fast that well! The finale, too, is exceptionally fine. Rattle's adagio is certainly molto (Mahler's marking) from the start, but Rattle and his Berliners sustain the slow tempo magisterially throughout. The string tone is glorious. The second time the main material appears they are superbly faithful to Mahler's detailed markings - just listen to the four successive sforzandi quavers on the cellos to have your heart pulled out. The First Horn, who has played wonderfully throughout the symphony, is special here with gloriously warm, almost old-fashioned tone. And, on the very last page of all, I have to admit to never having noticed the contrast Mahler makes by having the 1st violins play without mutes, while the rest of the strings play with them. This is especially poignant in the last 9 or 10 bars where the Firsts (without mutes) exchange notes with the Seconds (with mutes). Not unqualified praise, then, but a performance that demands serious though - challenging as well as deeply moving - as with most of Rattle's Mahler performances.