Mahler’s First Symphony – A Comparative Survey By Lee Denham Apparently, some of the most visited web pages on MusicWeb International are of the late Tony Duggan’s comprehensive survey of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies. Sadly, we lost Tony in 2012 and it says much about his legacy that it is only now, some eight years after, that it has been decided that his work needs to be updated. When the request came round, I was rather quick to raise my hand to do the First symphony – only to then realise that the discography on the Mahler Foundation website lists some 250 or so recordings, both live and in the studio, which needed to be considered. I strongly suspect mine was the only hand that went up ! That said, it has been a significant challenge, therefore, to try and be both comprehensive as well as concise, entertaining as well as enlightening, without producing a text rivalling War and Peace, but I have done my best and do apologise in advance for what rapidly turned out to be quite a lengthy article. What follows is not designed to be a replacement of Tony’s work, nor can it be a comprehensive review of every issue of Mahler’s First Symphony ever made. Instead, it is an article which can broadly be split into three sections: the first deals with the various transcriptions and arrangements the work has received, followed by a brief history of its composition and different editions of the score with an analysis of the recordings made of the “original” score(s), until the main narrative, which is of the very many recordings this work has received I have managed to get my hands on – good, bad, indifferent, in poor sound or otherwise, where I have tried to give the reader an idea of the various merits of each and perhaps to provide guidance on which ones best to seek out for further investigation. As always, all the opinions below are solely mine, and if I have missed out any reader’s favourite version, or have slighted one in any way, then I will apologise at the outset and have, in mitigation, offered a second opinion with a link to an original review by a colleague (if available) from MusicWeb’s extensive archives – just click on the review hyperlink by the relevant recording to access this. As with every one of these surveys, the moment it is published new recordings will be released that will add to the narrative of this much loved symphony, plus I will read back my original notes and wonder if there was any wisdom at all in my proclaimed judgements – as such, this will be revised in due course and I would be very grateful to anyone who is kind and patient enough to point out any errors which I (and I alone) have made. I have also attempted to grade what I consider to be the representative recording of each conductor with a mark out of 10, which I hope will give the reader some kind of guide of my own reaction to the performance. For example, the 9/10 awarded to Bruno Walter’s live NBC SO recording from 1939 reflects how impressed I was with the overall performance and playing from that era, as well as the importance of the recording, plus the interpretation – it clearly isn’t meant to reflect the fact that the sound is also of SACD quality - which, of course, it isn’t. The sound quality of each performance is usually mentioned in the narrative; whether a performance is live or studio, mono or stereo is indicated in brackets after the listed recordings – so clearly if a reader wants state of the art sound with no audience noises, a live mono recording from the 1950’s, or earlier, is clearly not going to pass muster, no matter how good the performance may be. I am therefore relying on the reader to exercise his or her judgement in these cases, too. However, as a rough guide, any recording that scores above an 8 is, in my opinion, distinctive and any under 5, poor and to be avoided. I spent a long time trying to work out a narrative – my cause is both aided and hampered by multiple recordings by the same conductors. I considered having an historical category, recognising that for some people this music demands modern sound, but then wondered how I was to treat some of the MusicWeb International December 2020 Mahler’s First Symphony survey earliest protagonists of the piece, such as Bruno Walter and Jascha Horenstein, who both made historical mono recordings as well as later versions in more than acceptable stereo sound. In the end, I decided on a lose historical narrative, starting with the first recording available (of Bruno Walter’s in 1939), but then concentrating on the rest of that conductor’s recordings, before continuing with the next conductor to make a recording (i.e. Dimitri Mitropoulos in 1940) and so on, with the aim of attempting to trace how interpretations of Mahler’s work have changed (if at all) down the years; likewise, the individual conductor’s interpretations. There are some conductors in this survey, such as Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel and Rafael Kubelik, who have recorded the symphony on many occasions. Some, most notably Jascha Horenstein and Carlo Maria Giulini, have barely any differences in interpretation between each recording and in those cases I have highlighted in bold the version that in my opinion is the one the reader should seek out, usually with an explanation in the narrative as to why one is preferred over the other(s). Elsewhere, where the interpretation of the conductor changes significantly, as with Bruno Walter who morphed from enfant-terrible in 1939 to genial Uncle Bruno in 1961, I have attempted to reflect this in the review narrative with the result that occasionally, as with both Walter and Kubelik for example, I end up recommending more than one recording by the same conductor. At the end, there is a brief summary where I list the recordings I would grab if the house were burning – each one of these recordings has a ‘**’ next to it in the main narrative to alert you as I go along. On this occasion, for a bit of fun I’ve decided to include a ‘wildcard’ category, too, so that I can also mention those recordings which can never be a central recommendation, but still have something special and unique to say about this marvellous symphony. I hope you find the following of interest and enjoyment. Transcriptions 2000 January 22-23rd – Chitose Okashiro (arr for solo piano by C Okashiro) ** CHATEAU 2003 March 10th – Prague Piano Duo (vers. B Walter Four Hands) PRAGA 2014 February 16th – Tokyo Kosei Wind Ensemble/Kentero Kawasi (vers for Wind Ensemble) LAWO 2018 August 11th – 14th – Ensemble Omnia Hong Kong/Wilson NG (chamber vers. A Riderelli) ARMS As usual with a work as well-known and as popular as Mahler’s First Symphony, there are always different arrangements, including one for chamber orchestra by Klaus Simon which has the work performed by 13 players, one each of strings and woodwind, two horns, one trumpet, timpanist and accordian. I don’t think this has been recorded as yet, but it’s probably only one for the super-curious. There are also similar arrangements for slightly bigger ensembles of 20 players, by Iain Farrington, as well as another by Andrea Riderelli, which has been recorded – the avoidance of an accordion is merciful, but replacing it with a piano didn’t convince me personally, although I’m sure there are many who disagree. Slightly more conventional is another for wind instruments which is, well, different – and slightly misleading, since there are harps, cellos and double-basses in this arrangement too, which kind of spoils it all for those wondering how the third movement’s double-bass solo would be adapted (it isn’t, in case you are wondering). Certainly, the dreamy opening loses some of its atmosphere when instead of soft strings the listener is presented with sustained woodwinds, before the opening cello melody is taken by tenor horns. There is a (live) recording of this with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Ensemble which almost persuades, under the able leadership of Kentaro Kawase on the LAWO label, but again, I’d say it’s one only for the curious. There are also transcriptions for solo piano, as well as a surprisingly effective one for piano duo by Bruno Walter which is very enjoyable (and has been recorded a number of times, including by Zdeňka Kolářová & Martin Hršel, aka The Prague Piano Duo, for Praga which is, in my opinion, rather good). MusicWeb International p2 Mahler’s First Symphony survey Of significantly greater note, perhaps, is a remarkable realisation made by the pianist Chitose Okashiro, who strives to recreate the spirit of the score on a piano, rather than merely transcribe the score by rote in a recording that was most enthusiastically reviewed by my colleague Paul Serotsky on MWI (see review ) who summed it up as “...an interesting idea - transcribing from orchestra to piano in order to improve the impact of the music’s message.” Allied to Ms Okashiro’s formidable technique, is a fine intuitive understanding of Mahler’s idiom, which combined produce highly convincing, thought-provoking, as well as hugely enjoyable, results. All you need to do is listen to the way Ms Okashiro opens the piece – none of the 56 bars of tremolando A of Bruno Walter’s more literal transcription – to realise that if Mahler had written the piece for piano instead of orchestra, then this is what it might have sounded like.