Can Gergiev still do Mahler?
Why MahlerEarly in his international career, Valery Gergiev professed himself a Mahler enthusiast and conducted the symphonies with great engagement whenever he got the opportunity.
For the past three years, as a Putin collaborator, he has been an international pariah and a Russian emperor, in charge of the country’s two greatest music institutions.
So how’s his Mahler doing? On the evidence of this fifth symphony last week, sneaked somehow onto Youtube, not terribly well.
The opening movement is robotic and (to my ears) triumphalist, the scherzo perfunctory, the adagietto unfeeling. The Mariinsky orchestra is is pretty good form, though, and the audience is much younger than those in the West.
The symphony starts at 1:31. Judge for yourselves.
They and the music need more sun.
I know that geography shouldn’t determine whether or not someone is natural Mahler conductor, but what is it about the Russians? Gergiev’s LSO set had little to redeem it; maybe you who heard them performed in person have a different reaction. The Svetlanov recordings are awful. Kondrashin is pretty good, but then he was good at everything he did.
I beg to differ. His Mahler 2 in Munich is great (video of the performance available on YouTube). And the tape from their live performance of Mahler 5 in Paris (was it 2019?) is also great. And regarding Russians and Mahler, you should look into what Vladimir Jurowski and Tugan Sokhiev are doing (although only the former has recorded Mahler so far)
Yes, that Jurowski Mahler 2 with the LPO is a knockout. Sokhiev I like a lot in what he’s done. I’ll check out the Gergiev Munich 2nd. He’s a great conductor – at least as far as recordings let me hear, but that LSO Mahler cycle has some real losers.
Does Kirill Petrenko count as Russian?
No.
At least Gergiev did not leave at the middle of the adagietto for a quick chat with Putin. Not to be taken for granted.
Mahler dredges spiritual depths in his striving. Gergiev has embraced something devoid of spirituality or truth. Is this performance surprising therefore?
He still uses a toothpick for a bsaton?
Well, I very much appreciate the way conductors educated in Russia treat Mahler. The ironies and contraries appear like under a magnifying glass, the colours produce an ashen veil which tells a lot about destructive forces. It’s another perspective with different focus, but not every interpretation has to be somewhat ethereal or blossoming, a conductor has every right to go after the dark aspects of that music. Last season Järvi played Mahler 5 with TOZ – the brass was cutting through coldly and the rhythms had a ravishing energy, the adagietto sounded very sad. In th case above a steely patina is lying over the whole thing, but the orchestra delivers. And there is Timur Martynov with THIS trumpet. BTW – what Gergiev is doing and saying is atrociously imprudent, but that doesn’t make everything awful what he is conducting a priori. According to that logic a musician would be as good as his political views in relation to democracy/authoritarianism, and that’s beyond any logic.
Signed up for his Mahler cycle with the LSO and stopped going after the first few – blaring, glaring, strident, painfully loud, brash, shallow. Can’t blame it all on the Barbican acoustic – Haitink played some sublime Mahler there in his 75th birthday year with several orchestras.
Any shortcomings may be down to overwork and under-rehearsing, which may indeed be a consequence of his present role in Russia. But it’s doubtful that he has undergone a great psychological change in recent years, circumstances have changed, not him. I’ve heard him do most of Wagner this year and have enjoyed it. I am not very captivated by this though.