Symphony no. 5 from Mahler supposedly marks an evolution in his symphonic output. A more direct approach, most notably without the vocals from the earlier symphonies.
For me and my troglodyte ears, his Fifth is more of a homecoming from where we left Mahler with his Symphony no. 1. Perhaps there is a loss of romance and humor and a gain in confidence and mastery, but rather than a change or an evolution, I see this work as a natural progression.
Where, with his early symphonies, I describe bold, bright colors for Mahler's thematic ideas, the biggest differences come in his application of texture. To put it simply, his music sounds a lot busier. Some attribute this to the composer's discovery of Bach, and if that is the case, you can hear its influence here.
The first two movements are blustery and militant sounding, whereas the center movement is filled with country dance music, presented as a musical salve of sorts. Because the middle movement is so long, there are still jaunts into darkness to keep the listener into the main ideas of the symphony, but generally it is a happy-go-lucky moment.
What follows is a heartfelt, sometimes overwhelmingly so, Adagietto for strings and harp only. The final movement brings back the ideas of fanfares, but in a much more celebratory manner. While Mahler has never been afraid of using percussion, I strongly sense its wide use across this work .
1970: Chicago SO, Solti
1978: Philadelphia, Levine
1990: Chicago SO, Solti
For now, we will have a very basic list of Mahler reviews above. The current list covers the most recent spate of listened recordings, not necessarily the best or most worthwhile. The older recordings are from our collection but newly reviewed, and the newer recordings represent recordings which were recommended to me. Until we at The Oozy Channel Keep have gotten ourselves up and running, this should suffice and we can reorganize the page a little more coherently in the future.