Gustav Mahler
's reorchestrations of
Schumann
's symphonies are not often recorded; such is the devotion to musical text fidelity these days that revisions like these are seen as somewhat suspect. Yet
Mahler
was far from alone in this kind of tinkering, and the whole exercise lends insight into how the turn of the 20th century heard the music of the 19th. There are a few major changes from what
listeners are used to, notably at the beginning of the first movement of the
Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 38 ("Spring")
, where the pitches differ. Here,
actually reverted to what
wrote; the earlier change was made by
Mendelssohn
, who conducted the premiere and considered the passage unplayable on hand-pitched brass (by
's time, there were valves). Elsewhere,
applies a fairly light touch, and listeners would be hard-pressed to identify all of the hundreds of changes he made (more in the
Symphony No. 1
than in the
Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61
). He beefs up the music, making alterations commensurate with a 90-person orchestra in place of one of 45, and brings clarity to anything that might have been thus smudged, but the essence of the music isn't disturbed, and here the recording is solid. Conductor
Marin Alsop
delivers a warm, burnished recording of the
"Spring" Symphony
that flows naturally and may make some listeners forget that they are listening to an odd version. The
Symphony No. 2
is done in a similar vein, and this is a bit less appropriate to the more dramatic stuff of the work, but it is certainly listenable. There are signs that
Alsop
is settling into her tenure with the
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
and getting fine results. One awaits her work in the other two
-
symphonies; presumably, recordings of those are on the way, especially inasmuch as this release hit classical best-seller charts in the fall of 2022. ~ James Manheim