[SACD-R][OF] Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra - Gustav Mahler – Symphony No 7 - 2008 (Orchestral, Romantic)

The 7th is often regarded as Mahler’s ‘Cinderella’ symphony &, after the tragic theme of the 6th, proves far more enigmatic. The funereal march of the opening movement gives way to the serene Nachtmusik (night music) movements, & a ghostly scherzo before culminating in a feverishly joyful finale.

AllMusic review by Blair Sanderson:
Few conductors turn in tightly controlled & coherent renditions of Gustav Mahler’s sprawling Symphony No. 7 in E minor, ‘Song of the Night,’ & it often comes across either as a jumble of ironic distortions or as a strange riddle that needs to be deciphered. It would hardly seem as direct & powerful as its predecessor, the Symphony No. 6 in A minor, ‘Tragic,’ which most conductors take at face value & frequently bring off with satisfactory results. Following his stunning 2008 success with his LSO Live recording of the Symphony No. 6 (1 of the finest that work has ever received), Valery Gergiev presents the Symphony No. 7 in an equally convincing manner & avoids the unnecessary exaggerations that can make this work seem bizarre or incomprehensible. Gergiev is a straightforward interpreter, & he treats the symphony as any other big-hearted, post-Romantic masterpiece, not as a special case full of esoteric secrets, but as inventive & exciting music brilliantly laid out in an intelligible 5-movement form. Taken boldly & played with steady energy, Gergiev & the London Symphony Orchestra make the piece hold together quite solidly, & the progression from the brooding opening through the nocturnal middle movements to the exuberant finale makes sense in symphonic terms. Recorded with crystal-clear DSD sound & presented in the super audio format, the recording is vividly detailed & surprisingly clean for being live, & the sonorities of the orchestra are absolutely true. Along with Gergiev’s spectacular performance of the Symphony No. 6, this SACD is highly recommended as 1 of the best releases of 2008.
Review by Huntley Dent (mahlerreviews.com):

Gergiev's Mahler was a major event this year in London but not, it appears, at Amazon. So far, one review is tepid and the other enthusiastic but without any explanation why. In context, Gergiev is attempting to rush out a complete live Mahler cycle in one year, and that risks the hazard of sloppy playing and offhand interpretations. As you'd expect, not every symphony sounds the same in his hands, and since Gergiev is a newcomer to Mahler on disc, it's hard to predict what he will do.
The Seventh bears some of the hallmarks of Gergiev's Sixth, which I found riveting for its visceral excitement. Like it, the Seventh is expertly played -- the recklessly fast finale may be virtuosic for its own sake. Also, there's plenty of attention to inner detail. Gergiev is at his best when he can take an unassuming passage and shape it into something special - I would say that this is his greatest talent in Mahler so far. The sound is a bit distant, which plays against the impact Gergiev wants us to feel. Finally, the interpretation doesn't aim to be Viennese; Gergiev insists on his own ideas and creates his own atmosphere.
Will we find it a congenial atmosphere? I certainly do - hearing a great conductor at work, inventing new ways of voicing familiar music, is one of the great joys of record collecting. Gergiev seems to have an overall aim here, to be spellbinding. He skips over many points that Mahler explicitly writes into the score, but no one could fault this reading for not being compelling. The first movement becomes a gripping drama of tension and release, each moment given total concentration. By comparison, Barenboimms Seventh on Teldec sounds coarse, loose, and aimless.
Objective description is fairly pointless - except for the break-away finale, tempos are within normal range. Abbado has fully mastered the Seventh, and his second, live version from Berlin is a marvel; he allows each soloist to find incredible expressivity. The LSO can't quite match the Berliners in that respect - they aren't on such an exalted plane to begin with - but one comes away knowing that this is a top-flight orchestra fully involved with its conductor. In all, another triumph for Gergiev, proving that you can be new to Mahler and great at the same time.
Rating 5 stars out of 5

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