If Mahler Seven is “problematic” then Paavo Järvi doesn’t agree. He gets it. The listener is hooked immediately when this escapade appears to begin in midsentence, the rowboat already in motion, and, illuminatingly, the violins are explicitly antiphonal, paying many dividends throughout and especially in the macabre third movement were these instruments exchange flashes of lightning either side of the conductor, add in a timpani thunderbolt and a bassoon rasp, not forgetting viola solos of much character. Before the spooks, ‘Nachtmusik I’ is wisely kept on the move, and, after them, its companion, with guitar and mandolin, serenades warmly and balmily, tramping in the gloaming. Of the outer movements, both lean-sounding and lucidly detailed, clarity the primary consideration, the opener flexible, mixing swashbuckling adventuring and blossoming romance, with demonstrations of militaristic swagger, while the Finale, cued by a vivid timpani tattoo and gleaming high trumpets, is unapologetic in its diversions, allusions, and Ives-like clashes; dance-measures are nudged naughtily, and the coda triumphs. This is the third release in Järvi’s Tonhalle Mahler cycle for Alpha following the Fifth Symphony (below) and the First (not yet covered). This Seventh, Alpha Classics ALPHA1206, sports nineteen tracks.
RELEASED TODAY, Friday March 13: Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich & Paavo Järvi record Mahler’s Seventh Symphony for Alpha Classics.
