Distinctive and attractive Czech Phil colours inform this impressive latest chapter of Semyon Bychkov’s Mahler Cycle (all previous releases reviewed on this site; just search “Bychkov Mahler”) from eight rich-toned horns at the outset to full-orchestra jubilation come the coda of the lengthy first movement, by turns atmospheric, swaggering, on-course to tumult, and inevitable; yet malleable, too, and the trombone solos are eloquently taken. The remaining five movements are sensibly collected on the second disc, the performance continuing to buzz with incident, the smallest of details reaching the ear with pertinence, the second movement rapturous, the third intriguingly spectral and fantastical, and including a poised posthorn solo from Walter Hofbauer (and that is the instrument cited rather than the more-usual trumpet), following which Catriona Morison is an inward purveyor of Nietzsche’s words, soon lustily complemented by the women and children for the Wunderhorn “Bim bam”, possibly including girls as well as Mahler’s specified boys. The final movement, an Adagio, steals in magically – hushed and rapt, wonderfully sensitive string-playing – spacious (twenty-five minutes) and saintly, qualities maintained to a gloriously golden conclusion. Pentatone PTC 5187 363 (2 CDs) is released on March 7.
Semyon Bychkov & the Czech Philharmonic record Mahler’s Third Symphony for Pentatone.
