Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (2007)

Fast but affecting, Austrian conductor Uwe Mund and the Japanese Kyoto Symphony Orchestra's 2001 performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony will appeal listeners who are fed up with enormously long, immensely slow, and large, heavy performances of the work. It's not that Mund and the Kyoto's performance is anywhere near as quick as older performances -- in Bruno Walter's classic 1938 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic, the closing Adagio took only a bit more than 18 minutes, while Mund's Adagio takes 24 and a half minutes, ... Read More

Fast but affecting, Austrian conductor Uwe Mund and the Japanese Kyoto Symphony Orchestra's 2001 performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony will appeal listeners who are fed up with enormously long, immensely slow, and large, heavy performances of the work. It's not that Mund and the Kyoto's performance is anywhere near as quick as older performances -- in Bruno Walter's classic 1938 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic, the closing Adagio took only a bit more than 18 minutes, while Mund's Adagio takes 24 and a half minutes, a fairly standard timing -- it's that Mund seems intent on keeping the music moving forward while so many of his contemporaries seem intent on keeping it immobile. Thus, Mund's tempos are more driven, his rhythms are more relentless, and his developments are more dramatic than many contemporary performances and the result is a surprisingly lyrical and startlingly emotional reading of the work. The Kyoto Symphony, while clearly not the Vienna Philharmonic, is still able to turn in a... Read Less