Based on this one-note performance, anybody would be forgiven for thinking that Mahler's Ninth was an orgy of self-pity and unalloyed, extreme despair at the inevitable. A listen to any number of other recordings, including Bernstein's first (and best) rendition from the mid 1960s, shows that the emotional terrain covered by this late masterwork is much more varied than that. Bitterness, anger and heartbreak ARE all emotional components of Mahler's Ninth, but there is also an underlying hunger for the earthly life which Mahler knew he would be departing at any time, and a sense of faith that death was not the end. No love of life in this rendition, and no glimpse into the afterlife.
I guess Bernstein here took his cue from Dylan Thomas' famous advice to his dying father--"Do not go gentle into that good night"--but the rage against the dying of the light has to eventually transform into something resembling acceptance and even transcendence if the performance is going to remain true to the spirit of this score. That never happens in this performance. In the finale--distended here to nearly 30 minutes, compared to 24-26 minutes in moderately-paced performances--Bernstein makes the music weep, moan and gnash its teeth until it finally expires from sheer exhaustion. It's pretty much the same unvaried mood in the preceding three movements. The whole score is reduced to an 89-minute series of "moments," some quite powerful, with forward motion pretty much ignored. Stunningly played by the great Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, but this is not what Mahler wrote.
Based on this one-note performance, anybody would be forgiven for thinking that Mahler's Ninth was an orgy of self-pity and unalloyed, extreme despair at the inevitable. A listen to any number of other recordings, including Bernstein's first (and best) rendition from the mid 1960s, shows that the emotional terrain covered by this late masterwork is much more varied than that. Bitterness, anger and heartbreak ARE all emotional components of Mahler's Ninth, but there is also an underlying hunger for the earthly life which Mahler knew he would be departing at any time, and a sense of faith that death was not the end. No love of life in this rendition, and no glimpse into the afterlife. I guess Bernstein here took his cue from Dylan Thomas' famous advice to his dying father--"Do not go gentle into that good night"--but the rage against the dying of the light has to eventually transform into something resembling acceptance and even transcendence if the performance is going to remain true to the spirit of this score. That never happens in this performance. In the finale--distended here to nearly 30 minutes, compared to 24-26 minutes in moderately-paced performances--Bernstein makes the music weep, moan and gnash its teeth until it finally expires from sheer exhaustion. It's pretty much the same unvaried mood in the preceding three movements. The whole score is reduced to an 89-minute series of "moments," some quite powerful, with forward motion pretty much ignored. Stunningly played by the great Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, but this is not what Mahler wrote.