Mahler: Symphony No. 9

For those who have great audio equipment and love this Mahler symphony, I recommend this Blue Ray disc highly. Chailly is wonderful for Mahler's music and you really get to hear and see every sound of every instrument as Mahler intended. The last movement as intended tears your heart out. Life and death can do that.

Very rarely does a disc come out that so completely and decisively blows away the competition! Chailly and his Leipzig band take no prisoners with this Mahler 9!Haitink is predictably stolid and unexciting with the Concertgebouw, and Abbado with the Lucerne is fussy and lugubrious in the wonderful Adagio. He also gets gimmicky by turning down the lights during this last movement. This music speaks for itself - it doesn't need visual aids. Barenboim has a good version on DVD, but it's not on bluray. I like both the Lucerne and Amsterdam orchestras, but this Leipzig group is really something. Chailly wrings every last ounce of effort and instrumental expertise out of these players, and is aided and abetted by the best surround sound recording I have ever heard - and I've heard some really good ones. It is absolutely stunning - every instrumental section is exposed in almost a chamber music manner - but the sheer force of this orchestra has to heard to be believed (and make sure you play this disc at high volume!)The video quality is also non-pareil, including the editing, which always manages to land attention on the right player.Chailly' Mahler series has been excellent throughout, with only 1,3,7 and 10 to go. #7 is next to be released. This is truly bel-canto Mahler, especially in the great Adagio. Chailly has always been a balletic conductor, totally caught up in the music, and here he sways back and forth, up and down, and it actually adds to the experience.The andante comodo first movement, with its mood changes and furious onslaughts presents many pitfalls to undisciplined and underqualified conductors ( of which there are many). Chailly avoids all these traps, and the whole thing is held together as one organism. I have never heard the timpani brought to the fore with such explosiveness before.The Landler second movement is played quite briskly. In fact, it sounds like what Rossini would have sounded like had he written a landler dance - none of your foot-stomping Austrian peasants here! Brilliantly executed!The Rondo is a real barnburner, also played quite quickly, but what a virtuoso performance from these players! This is a real in-your- face version, and you'll definitely have a big grin on your face at the very noisy end of it.Now to the true climax of this piece, the Adagio. Considering that Bruno Walter, who knew Mahler, and made the first recording of this piece in 1938, took 17 minutes to play it, I have always been wary of these self-important conductors who seem to be in competition with each other to see who can do it the slowest. Even Abbado, who should have known better, took almost 30 minutes. This music is supposed to flow, not be a succession of episodes. Fortunately, Chailly gets closer to the ideal than most, taking 24 minutes, and making it sound like the affirmation of life that it is, not the more commonly played dirge.I have now played this disc four times in less than a week, which I never do with a new bluray. It's that good! I really doubt that this will be equaled, let alone surpassed, any time soon.By the way, as a bonus, there is an interesting conversation between Chailly and Henry-Louis de LA Grange, who wrote the definitive Mahler biography.Press the Amazon button, and get your copy without delay! If you are a Mahler nut like me, it will change your life.

Chailly butchered this wonderful work !!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Chailly has progressed greatly on this repertoire. Much better than his last attempt on CD.

Verified Purchase in the UKThis recording of the 9th Symphony by Chailly was made in late 2013. It has all the virtues of the other discs so far heard in this outstanding series and is a typical high quality Paul Smaczny product. As bonuses it includes two interesting documentaries both featuring Chailly who is able to explain via studio discussion with a colleague and also on his own filmed at the composer’s solitary retreat where the work was written.These two documentaries offer a considerable insight into Chailly’s beliefs about the forward looking and generally up-beat purpose of a work that has so often been thought of as the composer’s valedictory contribution to his life’s work. That concept is not Mahler’s, ill though he was, but the comments imposed upon the work by others, confused by the work’s possible meaning.Chailly draws out the connection between the 9th Symphony and the following tenth which starts thematically where the ninth left off. The tenth was already being conceived at the time of the conclusion of the ninth and, Chailly’s view, was not the frame of mind of a man contemplating imminent death. His view is that this is a work looking forward. Consequently the performance is notably energetic with a marked forward pace and sense of compositional inspiration. Conceived and played in this way there is a considerable demand placed upon the virtuosity of the players both in extrovert passages and in the contrasting introverted passages demanding extreme and prolonged delicate control. To play in this way requires an orchestra of a very special calibre both collectively and individually. The Leipzig players deliver everything asked of them and are a constant source of wonder and admiration.This concept of the symphony may come as a shock to those who see it as an end of life statement. For those prepared to accept Chailly’s understanding of the work it will be revelatory. The notably attentive audience seemed to be convinced too judging from the prolonged and appreciative applause!This is simply an outstanding achievement by all concerned from the musicians through to the recording team.

This is a superb account of Mahler's 9th by the Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly. In my opinion, a much tauter, more alert version compared with his Concertgebouw performance from 2004. There is the advantage of vision as well. I did laugh though when it showed a triangle being gently struck in the second movement and no sound of it was noticeable in the recording. Oh, well, the microphones can't capture everything, I guess. I think this will become my favourite recording of this work. PS My review applies to the DVD version.

This recording of the 9th Symphony by Chailly was made in late 2013. It has all the virtues of the other discs so far heard in this outstanding series and is a typical high quality Paul Smaczny product. As bonuses it includes two interesting documentaries both featuring Chailly who is able to explain via studio discussion with a colleague and also on his own filmed at the composer’s solitary retreat where the work was written.These two documentaries offer a considerable insight into Chailly’s beliefs about the forward looking and generally up-beat purpose of a work that has so often been thought of as the composer’s valedictory contribution to his life’s work. That concept is not Mahler’s, ill though he was, but the comments imposed upon the work by others, confused by the work’s possible meaning.Chailly draws out the connection between the 9th Symphony and the following tenth which starts thematically where the ninth left off. The tenth was already being conceived at the time of the conclusion of the ninth and, Chailly’s view, was not the frame of mind of a man contemplating imminent death. His view is that this is a work looking forward.Consequently the performance is notably energetic with a marked forward pace and sense of compositional inspiration. Conceived and played in this way there is a considerable demand placed upon the virtuosity of the players both in extrovert passages and in the contrasting introverted passages demanding extreme and prolonged delicate control. To play in this way requires an orchestra of a very special calibre both collectively and individually. The Leipzig players deliver everything asked of them and are a constant source of wonder and admiration.This concept of the symphony may come as a shock to those who see it as an end of life statement. For those prepared to accept Chailly’s understanding of the work it will be revelatory. The notably attentive audience seemed to be convinced too judging from the prolonged and appreciative applause!This is simply an outstanding achievement by all concerned from the musicians through to the recording team.

This performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony is a revelation. Chailly blows away the traditional view which sees this work as a farewell to life, a view which makes no sense at all given that Mahler lived on to write most of a tenth symphony. This performance reveals the work as an affirmation of all aspects of life: good, bad and indifferent. The result is in turns exuberant, disturbed, calm, intense, sad; well, everything that nature and life have to offer.The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra are outstanding as is the recording and filming. This may well become your favourite Mahler symphony after watching this recording.

Excellent.

Excellent - not my favourite Mahler symphony, but superbly performed by the Gewandhaus and Chailly. Sound and picture quality are wonderful.

The poise and power of the Leipzig crew with the passion of Chailly's vision - very moving!