Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 3, 2014

Zubin Mehta probably didn’t help his reputation with the cultural elite of the classical music world when he appeared in Frank Zappa’s bizarrely contrarian surreal film 200 Motels. But Mehta has been something of a contrarian himself throughout his long career, and sometimes not entirely by choice. His now legendary appointment as Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic led to Georg Solti, who hadn’t been informed about his potential new underling, to resign before ever having formally joined the orchestra. Mehta had a long association with the New York Philharmonic and delivered many towering performances, even if the consensus among New York’s upper classes was that he didn’t have quite the flash and consistency of Leonard Bernstein. In fact most people who have criticized Mehta through the years have done so based on what is perceived to be a somewhat haphazard recording oeuvre. Even those curmudgeons are usually forced to admit that Mehta’s stirring and even rambunctious 1975 reading of Gustav Mahler’s gargantuan Second Symphony is not only among the best things Mehta ever conducted, it is certainly among the best recordings of Mahler’s Second.

Mehta’s approach to this almost manic-depressive score is surprisingly elastic, with tempi that surge and ebb appropriately. The Vienna Philharmonic has rarely risen to the occasion more spectacularly than on this recording, which features some exhilarating work from both the low strings and brass, as well as the too often ignored percussion section (the tympanist here is near miraculous). This recording features soloists Ileana Cotrubas and Christa Ludwig, and among the greatest pleasures this recording offers are the luminous vocal passages, which are exceptionally lucid and crystalline in this interpretation.

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aside from the static menu screen, there is no video content on this audio Blu-ray disc.

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I fear I'm getting a bit repetitive in my analyses of this slate of the so-called High Fidelity Pure Audio releases from Universal Music Group's many imprints (this particular one comes courtesy of Decca). Why the marketers continue to trumpet the "vast storage space" of the Blu-ray while simultaneously using very little of it boggles the imagination, especially when some of that use is the debatable decision to provide three largely interchangeable audio codecs. Once again we have LPCM, DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD iterations of the score, all at 96/24. As with previous releases, I tend to prefer the LPCM outing, which sounds a bit more robust to my ears than the other two. This recording is just a trifle on the "dry" side, without much ambient space surrounding Mahler's huge soundscapes. That actually tends to keep the massed orchestral forces sounding more focused at times.

If I had my druthers, I would recommend to UMG to simply provide an LPCM rendering of the audio and include (on the classical releases) the actual scores, so that music lovers could follow along with the music. Certainly static images of even a lengthy score like Mahler's Second would eat up relatively little space on the disc, and would certainly offer some added value to classical music connoisseurs. Since many of these older scores are in the public domain, there aren't even any copyright considerations to worry about.

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on this audio Blu-ray disc.

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mehta and Mahler might not seem like they were made for each other, but you wouldn't know it by this vigorous recording. One of Mahler's most challenging pieces is presented brilliantly on this new audio Blu-ray, and despite no supplements, this release comes Highly recommended.