Mahler Symphony No. 4 (Claudio Abbado 1978 recording)

Recording#

The album was recorded using analogue technology in May 1977 in the Grosser Saal (main auditorium) of the Musikverein in Vienna.

Packaging#

The covers of the first LP, cassette and CD versions of the album share the same photograph taken by Herbert Tobias of Hamburg. The cover of the Abbado Edition release of the album, designed under the art direction of Hartmut Pfeiffer, features a photograph of Abbado taken by G. Baroni.

Reviews#

Richard Osborne reviewed the album on LP in Gramophone in June 1978, comparing it with alternative versions of the “symphony of heavenly life” conducted by Otto Klemperer, Rafael Kubelik, James Levine and George Szell. Claudio Abbado’s reading of the first movement, he wrote, was straightforward, colourful and likeable. Like Szell, Abbado opened with a tempo that was animated without being flustered, and he was meticulous in his obedience to Mahler’s accents and dynamics. After a few minutes, though, the “apparently episodic” character of the movement caused him to lose sight of the wood for the trees. Where Szell had acknowledged the movement’s “unity in diversity” with a “steady, treading pulse” that " refused to ignore the thrust of the downbeat", Abbado paced the score erratically. Figure 7 exemplified Abbado’s “losing his way” at a point where Szell had managed to allow himself a liberal rubato without disrupting the music’s fundamental rhythm. In the second movement, the Scherzo, Abbado was more successful. His unhurried reading was “wonderfully well shaped and articulated, full of childish nightmares, with the two Trios beautifully poised and expansive”. The passage following the second Trio was perhaps a little hesitant, but this was a minor failing. It was especially pleasant to hear a movement that could sound abrasive played without anything rebarbative about it. Levine’s performance of the Scherzo was just as good, although the string section of his Chicago Symphony Orchestra and RCA’s engineering were both inferior to what Abbado’s disc provided. Richard Osborne revisited the album in Gramophone in November 1984, when it had been issued on a “luminously clear” CD. Its promotion to the superior format had made him listen to it with new ears. “Much more than on LP”, he wrote, he was “aware of the brilliance of Mahler’s scoring and of the VPO’s re-creation of it. There is also much pleasure to be derived from the rapture of the Viennese strings in the slow movement and the boyish freshness and charm of Frederica von Stade in the fourth movement.” This said, he still found some of Claudio Abbado’s conducting questionable, and a recently released rival CD of the symphony conducted by Klaus Tennstedt was probably a better buy.

Accolade#

Stereo Review classed the album as a “Recording of Special Merit”.

CD track listing#

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Symphony No. 4 (1901), traditional text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn * 1 (16:05) Bedächtig, Nicht eilen * 2 (9:11) In gemächlicher Bewegung, Ohne Hast * 3 (23:26) Ruhevoll * 4 (9:03) Sehr behaglich

Musical#

• Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano
• Gerhart Hetzel, violin
• Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
• Claudio Abbado (1933-2014), conductor

Other#

• Rainer Brock, producer
• Günter Hermanns, engineer

Release history#

In 1978, Deutsche Grammophon released the album on LP with texts and translations, and with notes by Constantin Floros and Richard Osborne (catalogue number 2530 966). The album was also issued on cassette (catalogue number 3300 966). In 1984, Deutsche Grammophon issued the album on CD (catalogue number 413 454-2) with a 20-page insert booklet including photographs of Mahler, Abbado and von Stade, the text of the fourth movement’s song in English, French, German and Italian, notes by Richard Osborne in English, notes by Paul-Gilbert Langevin in French and notes by Constantin Floros in German and Italian. Subsequently Deutsche Grammophon reissued the album on a remastered “Abbado Edition” CD (catalogue number 437 011-2) with a 24-page insert booklet including photographs of Mahler and Abbado, the same texts and notes as its predecessor and an open letter to Abbado from Deutsche Grammophon’s president. Both the single CD and the box set were available on cassette (catalogue numbers 437 011-4 and 437 000-4 respectively). In 1996, Deutsche Grammophon issued the album in a 2-CD set coupled with a version of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 that Abbado had recorded with Carol Neblett, Marilyn Horne and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (catalogue number 453 037-2). In 2012, Deutsche Grammophon reissued the album on CD in their Virtuoso Series (catalogue number 478 423 5).