December 25, 2024
Athens, GR 10 C
Expand search form
Blog

Can Gergiev still do Mahler?

Can Gergiev still do Mahler?

Early in his international career, Valery Gergiev professed himself a Mahler enthusiast and conducted the symphonies with great engagement whenever he got the opportunity.

For the past three years, as a Putin collaborator, he has been an international pariah and a Russian emperor, in charge of the country’s two greatest music institutions.

So how’s his Mahler doing? On the evidence of this fifth symphony last week, sneaked somehow onto Youtube, not terribly well.

The opening movement is robotic and (to my ears) triumphalist, the scherzo perfunctory, the adagietto unfeeling. The Mariinsky orchestra is is pretty good form, though, and the audience is much younger than those in the West.

The symphony starts at 1:31. Judge for yourselves.

The post Can Gergiev still do Mahler? appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

Jerrold Northrop Moore: How I got in touch with Elgar

Next Article

Britain’s busiest classical producer?

You might be interested in …

Fritz Spiegl goes on the block

Fritz Spiegl goes on the block

The music collection of Liverpool flautist and humourist Fritz Spiegl (1926-2003) is up for sale at Sotheby’s next week, July 11. It includes a letter in English from Mendelssohn, and plenty from more recent English […]

Thomas Allen has sung his last performance

Thomas Allen has sung his last performance

An epoch has ended. Alastair Macaulay reports from Glyndebourne: Tonight, the British baritone Thomas Allen, aged seventy-nine, announced from the Glyndebourne stage that this had been his final performance; I wish I had been there. […]