danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

Once you hear Gustav Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony you never forget it.  It is an absolutely overwhelming experience.  It requires well over a hundred players, plus a huge chorus and a soprano and contralto, and lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes.  It is no surprise whatever that Gilbert Kaplan would have become so passionate about it.

Kaplan is a wealthy businessman who has devoted his life to Mahler’s Second Symphony.  Kaplan isn’t a trained musician, nor does he claim to be, but from time to time he conducts the work with various orchestras.  He’s even made two recordings of the piece.  I have his first, released on MCA in 1988 with the LSO.  Kaplan’s conducting is clearly not in the same league as Klemperer or Walter, but, judging from the recording, it isn’t horrible by any means.

But to read an article published last week, the New York Philharmonic players would disagree.  One of the Philharmonic’s violinists said of Kaplan, “I think he’s a charlatan.  At best his conducting is incompetent. At worst it’s laughable”.  Ouch.

How is it, then, that music critics and record reviewers like myself haven’t come to the same conclusion as the New York Philharmonic players?  The answer is the players themselves.  First class, modern orchestras like the NYPO play at such a high level that they can compensate for inferior conducting.  Let’s say a conductor’s technique is lacking, and he doesn’t show the beat.  The players power through.  Counting Mahler isn’t like counting Stravinsky, so the players can keep together themselves, and if they pay attention to the concertmaster and their section leaders, they can simply ignore a bad conductor. The audience might be unaware, especially if they can’t see what the conductor is doing.  It’s not ideal, and it is not likely to be revelatory, but that’s how it is.

What makes Kaplan’s MCA set so impressive is the care that went into the documentation he put together.  There are two booklets: one is full of notes and the sung text; the other includes an assortment of letters written by Mahler related to his Symphony No. 2.  It’s a lavish package I wouldn’t want to be without.  Kaplan’s recording may not be the first I turn to when I want to hear the Resurrection, but I cannot help but feeling the NYPO players are being a little dramatic.  Plus, Kaplan has done a great deal to advance this incomparable music.  He owns the manuscript copy of the work, and while I never like the idea of great works of art being in private hands, I am certain he treasures it.

Here’s a short sample from Kaplan’s LSO recording:

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Filed under: Music on December 21st, 2008