Lucerne Festival Orchestra delivers a stunning recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 3

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, October 25, 2008

Scott Cantrell

Mahler Symphony No. 3. Larsson, Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Tölz Boys Choir, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Abbado (EuroArts DVD)

To judge from DVDs and CDs coming out of his Switzerland-based summer-festival orchestra, Claudio Abbado is having a glorious Indian summer as a conductor. At age 75, after surgery several years ago for stomach cancer, he looks gaunt, but his conducting radiates life and love.

Doubtless he draws energy from his handpicked Lucerne ensemble, which combines principal players from the likes of the Berlin and Vienna philharmonics with hotshot young musicians. It's a kind of orchestral equivalent to the American chamber-music festival at Marlboro, Vt.

The Abbado-Lucerne survey of the Mahler symphonies gets better and better. This Mahler Third would be hard to beat in either audio or video format. Mr. Abbado's grasp of structures great and small is unerring, and there's wonderful naturalness to his feeling for phrase and breath.

From the faintest hushes to grand apotheosis, the orchestra plays stunningly. And it reminds us on-­e again how much more physically demonstrative European orchestras are than American counterparts. Anna Larsson supplies a firm, finely polished contralto, and the choirs are properly fresh-toned. Both audio and video are first-rate.

Scott Cantrell

Data creazione : 01/11/2008 @ 00:22
Ultima modifica : 01/11/2008 @ 01:05
Categoria : Incisioni (CD - DVD)
Pagina letta 2491 volte

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