BEFORE WE PROCEED TO THE LAST THREE BRUCKNER SYMPHONIES, LET'S CONNECT WITH A MAHLER ADAGIO --
Which is where we'll pick up in Part 2.
FIRST LET'S CONSIDER A COUPLE OF NEAR-ADAGIOS
First, let's consider a couple of near-adagios. Mahler 1 and 2 have slow movements we wouldn't even think to call adagios. Mahler 3, about as strange a pile of symphonic construction as I'm aware of, actually concludes with an extended slow movement that might qualify, and the precedent of concluding a large symphony with a large slow movement is certainly going to catch fire with Mahler, but in M3 I think he's playing at something else here, especially when we consider the long opening section the begins all-strings and then for a good piece allows only small-bore wind intrusions. Let's listen -- I think you'll hear what I mean.
MAHLER: Symphony No. 3 in D: vi. Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden. (Slow. Peaceful. Felt.)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded in Orchestra Hall, November 1982
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA, recorded in Symphony Hall, Oct. 10-11, 1966
London Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein, cond. Unicorn-Kanchana, recorded in Fairfield Hall, Croydon, London, July 27-29, 1970
New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live in Avery Fisher Hall, Nov. 25-28, 1987
Then there's the "little adagio," the Adagietto of Mahler 5, which long led a life of its own as a stand-alone tribute or memorial to lost cherished ones. Of coure by definition not an actual Adagio. Still, on this modest scale it does draw on adagio skills and attention.
MAHLER: Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor:
iv. Adagietto - Sehr langsam (Very slow)
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA, recorded in Symphony Hall, Nov. 17, 23 & 26, 1963
Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live in the Alte Oper, Frankfurt, September 1987
Symphonica of London, Wyn Morris, cond. IMP-Collins, recorded January 1973
Philharmonia Orchestra, Paul Kletzki, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, Oct. 27, 1959
Philadelphia Orchestra, James Levine, cond. RCA, recorded in Scottish Rite Cathedral, Jan. 17-18, 1977
Vienna Philharmonic, Pierre Boulez, cond. DG, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Musikverein, March 25, 1996
But going back to the symphony we leapfrogged over, Mahler 4, bingo! From the outside M4 may look like a sort-of-normal four-movement symphony, except that looked at more closely there's hardly anything normal about it: an opening movement that feels more like a second movement, an actual second movement, a finale that consists of a mezzo-soprano (or boy alto) singing Mahler's setting of "The Heavenly Life," the tableau from Des Knaben Wunderhorn of a child imagining partaking of a heavenly feast of yummy edibles -- and safely tucked away in the no. 3 spot is a full-blown adagio! Mahler doesn't call it that; he calls it "Ruhevoll," "peaceful," but that's a good mode for adagio-ing -- at least as good as Bruckner's so-frequent "feierlich," "solemn." And it's a beauty!
MAHLER: Symphony No. 4 in G:
iv. Ruhevoll (Peaceful)
London Symphony Orchestra, Wyn Morris, cond. Collins Classics, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 1989
Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded in the Philharmonie, February 1979
Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live in the Concertgebouw, June 24-26, 1987
Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, cond. DG, recorded in the Masonic Auditorium, April 1998
It would be a while before Mahler thought to go back into adagio mode, but at least he had this one under his belt when the dramatic change in his life circumstances following completion of the Eighth Symphony shocked him into it. We'll pick up this thread next time.
NOW FOR THE BRUCKNER 7, 8, AND 9 ADAGIOS
For the last three Bruckner symphonies, with Furtwängler on hand to keep us grounded . . . we're focusing on one of Carlo Maria Giulini's memorable recording achievements, representing the finest flowering of his productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic: first Bruckner 8 in May 1984, Bruckner 7 in June 1986, and the awe-inspiring Bruckner 9 (which we've already heard, in the March 25 post) in June 1988. In addition, I've assembled a number of earlier performances, so we can sort of hear him working his way toward his recording dates in Vienna. We've also got one later -- considerably later -- performance, a 1996 Bruckner 9, about which I'll say a little more after we've heard it.
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E:
ii. Adagio - Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam
(Very solemn and very slow)
Vienna Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. DG, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Musikverein, June 10, 1986
Berlin Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. Testament, recorded live in the Philharmonie, Mar. 5, 1985
Philharmonia Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. BBC Legends, recorded live at the Proms, Royal Albert Hall, July 19, 1982
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. Live performance, Jan. 4, 1942
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8 in C minor:
iii. Adagio - Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schleppend
(Solemnly slow, yet not dragging)
[ed. Nowak] Vienna Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. DG, recorded live in the Grosser Saal of the Musikverein, May 1984
[ed. Nowak] Philharmonia Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. BBC Legends, recorded live in the Royal Festival Hall, Sept. 18, 1983
[ed. Nowak] Berlin Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. Testament, recorded live in the Philharmonie, Feb. 11, 1984
[ed. Haas] Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. Live performance from Titania Palast, Mar. 15, 1949
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 in D minor:
iii. Adagio - Langsam, feierlich (Adagio - Slow, solemn)
Vienna Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. DG, recorded live in the Grosser Saal of the Musikverein, June 1988
Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. Live performance from the Beethovensaal, Oct. 7 1944 [also issued by DG]
[UPDATE: Oops, forgot to plug the epochal Furtwängler performance in here again. This one we don't want to forget.]
We've already heard C.M.G.'s earlier recording -- really good, but . . .
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI, recorded in Medinah Temple, Dec. 1-2, 1976
Now we have that later Giulini Bruckner 9
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. Hänssler Classics, recorded live in the Stuttgart Liederhalle, Sept. 20, 1996 [with applause; the performance ends about 25:04]
NOW, ABOUT THAT STUTTGART BRUCKNER 9 ADAGIO
Marcella de Girolami Giulini (1921-1995) and C.M.G. (1914-2005)
For how long now have I been going on about the 1988 Giulini-Vienna Bruckner 9? You know, about how powerfully dark, even despairing it is? How the performance as a whole seems to me to be dripping blood?
I've been looking a little at the shape of Giulini's career, taking note, for example, of the reason for his departure from the music directorship of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1984: the serious illness of his wife, Marcella. Partly it seems to have been that her condition required more of his attention, and partly it was that to a large degree Marcella had "handled" his career -- all the details that had to be seen to, and weren't likely to be seen to be the maestro. No doubt for both reasons his musical activities dropped off precipitously. I assume there was also the issue that in 1984 he turned 70.
Marcella died in 1995. It was the following year that, now 81, he conducted that Bruckner 9 in Stuttgart. And while the essential outlines of the performance seem familiar, it strikes me as a very different result. I won't go so far as to describe it as warm and cuddly. But it sure sounds different to me, the Adagio winding up in a very different place.
NEXT UP: Filling in the missing and incomplete pieces of our symphonic-adagio survey
What kinds of challenges -- and opportunities -- does "adagio mode" offer to performers (and listeners)?
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