Mahler: Symphony No. 3. Minnesota Orchestra, Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano), Women of the Minnesota Chorale, Minnesota Boychoir, Osmo Vänskä (conductor). BIS 2486, two SACDs. Total Time: 104:07.
DIGITAL REVIEW – Although it took a while longer than intended, Osmo Vänskä’s valedictory recording project of all 10 Mahler symphonies with his former ensemble, the Minnesota Orchestra, on the BIS Records label was finally completed this year — and it’s mostly a beauty. It may be the best-sounding cycle on the market, and it is one of just a handful to include the entire performing version of the unfinished Symphony No. 10 instead of copping out with just the Adagio first movement or no music at all from the Tenth.
The project was originally supposed to have been recorded and released during Vänskä’s final years as Minnesota Orchestra music director, said to be a transformational era in the orchestra’s history. But the COVID pandemic shut down the operation in 2020, leaving the Symphonies Nos. 3, 8, and 9 yet to be recorded. When the pandemic loosened its grip, work on the remaining symphonies resumed in 2022 with Nos. 9, 8, and finally 3, in that order, extending beyond the official end of Vänskä’s term as music director into his first months as conductor laureate.
In general, this Mahler Third confirms that the further Vänskä goes into the cycle, the better he gets — reaching deeper into the material, not hurrying as much as in earlier installments, while scrupulously observing just about everything, every instruction, to the letter. In the long opening movement, the tempos are prevalently slow, but the sections that should roar do. The second movement is beautifully articulated, gentle, pointedly detailed, just the right middle-road pace.
While the tempo is slow in the third movement, that’s all to the good so that the listener can concentrate on picking up all of the deliciously detailed threads that make up this fabric. The posthorn solo — played on a flugelhorn — is so distant that it sounds like it’s wafting into Minneapolis from somewhere in Canada. Weiter ferne — (from a) far distance, the score says — and so it is here.
The Nietzsche-inspired fourth movement is still, mysterious, with the plaintive oboe solos approaching the note from below as indicated (and not often done by others). Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston is cool, concentrated, just what’s needed, with a bit of a waver in her tone. There is a curiosity: At one point, the first violin and horn play different phrases, one after the other, than what my edition of the score indicates.
Movement 5 is leisurely, beautifully sung by the Minnesota choruses, and the last meditative movement is quite slow, very deeply felt, every indication observed. I’m reminded of Zubin Mehta’s Los Angeles Philharmonic version of Mahler 3 from his last recording session as its music director, the rapt finale of which could be interpreted as his fond farewell to his orchestra — and I wonder if Vänskä’s could also be considered a farewell as he and the Minnesota Orchestra completed their Mahler journey.
Ultimately, the most extraordinary thing about this recording is the sound quality — spacious, richly textured, realistic, and detailed to an almost unbelievably precise degree. At last, somebody made use of multi-channel surround sound to illuminate something other than hall reverberation; the rat-a-tat-tat snare drum solo just before the recapitulation of the first movement’s opening theme is clearly firing from the rear speakers, a dramatic effect I have not heard on Mahler 3 SACDs previously. The dynamic range is startlingly wide; the pianissimos and pianississimos are really soft — you’ll need a quiet space (or headphones) to get the most out of them.
If you are looking for explosive or neurotic Mahler à la Solti or Bernstein, the Minnesota way may not be your cup of schnapps. But for a gorgeous-sounding, well-played, objective view of this huge symphony, Vänskä’s is deeply satisfying.
