It is often the world's most famous orchestras that undertake the Mahler symphonies, for these works stretch them to their limits, but of course, they're played all the time by groups of the second tier, right on the edge of the top tier, and one can argue that what Mahler heard when he stepped to the podium in his day more resembled these than the blazing brass of, say, the Chicago Symphony or the Berlin Philharmonic. Will the listener miss the virtuoso section playing in this reading by Ádám Fischer and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker? Only rarely. Really, the strings are remarkable in this reading; Fischer catches the long lines of the work in big stretches of quiet music that are kept exquisitely controlled, all the more impressive in that this is a 2019 live performance of one of the most difficult works in the symphonic repertory. The "Urlicht" fourth movement is extraordinary, transcendent, with marvelous cooperation between Fischer and alto Nadine Weissmann; the sharper-edged voice of soprano Tünde Szabóki contrasts nicely with hers. The overall quiet mood extends to the opening movement, where some may prefer a more imposing approach, but it fits with Fischer's general mood. The only place where the performance falls short is in the work of the Choir of the Städtischer Musikverein zu Düsseldorf, which is a bit pitch-insecure and has a tendency to sound like a shapeless mass. This tendency is amplified by a rather cavernous sound from the planetarium space of the Tonhalle Düsseldorf. However, this is a must for Fischer fans and a strong Mahler Second for anyone.
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