Whoever said that this new disc was a poor way to mark the tenth anniversary of Sir Georg Solti's death must have been listening to a different CD.
The power of the great Hungarian's conducting is awesome in this recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, and he has the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich drilled to within an inch of its life.
But the salient feature of the performance is its autumnal, elegiac character, an impression heightened by the knowledge that this was Solti's last ever concert. It was captured live by the Schweizer Radio DRS in July 1997 less than two months before the conductor's death and has now been released on CD by Decca for the first time.
Although there are small technical blips such as uncertain violin and brass intonation and co-ordination in a couple of the movements, they are more than compensated for by the tremendous character of the performance. That the recording was made live in concert seems appropriate for a musician who loved to perform in front of an audience. Whether he would have liked to have this recording released without his permission is another matter; such a perfectionist in the studio would probably have preferred to redo some passages. Nevertheless, as a document of one of Solti's final performances this new CD is invaluable.
The first movement strikes me as being unusually even in tempo. Solti's strong beat helps to give the funeral march solemnity without the piece sounding as heavy-going as other conductors in this work. There is a romantic wistfulness to the music; clichéd though the observation may seem, it would be easy to believe that Solti knew he would never perform the symphony again. The passion of the violin playing at around five minutes into the performance is thrilling - the musicians give the piece every ounce of sweat at their disposal. As well as the emotional aspect, Solti's performance is also of huge interpretative interest. He draws out the neoclassical threads with a light touch: not for nothing is Mahler a forebear of the Second Viennese School.
The flourish in the low strings that opens the second movement initiates a performance of white-hot intensity. The opening of the exposition finds the brass and violins interacting closely to splendid effect; the solo violin in the development leads into a second outburst, while Solti emphasises the increasing harmonic extremity of the music throughout the movement, at times drawing out brand new revelations about the piece. The nightmarishness and lingering classicism incessantly clash, showing Solti's understanding of Mahler's artistic conflicts between the old and the new. But the horns' brief chorale is what stands out for me: it is distressingly sad.
The pizzicato section of the third movement has always been difficult to pull off, not least in the concert hall where conductors have to balance the intimacy of the effect with performing in a large space. In Solti's hands it is as haunting as one could ever hope. Meanwhile, the conductor's rigour and precision pay dividends in the playful scherzo music, the spring of the woodwind phrasing making the movement dance along with great momentum.
Solti's take on the fourth and fifth movements completes a captivating performance. In the Adagietto he balances technique and sentiment in just the right measures; the finale is visceral and masculine, yet always clean and sharply attacked.
While other recordings made in a studio environment probably remain preferable for their overall accounts of the work, this new recording is an invaluable document of Solti's last concerts and is to be highly recommended to all who admired and loved him.