MARTIN SIEGHART - DIRIGENT
Fotos zum Download (je ca. 1,6 MB bis 4,6 MB)
Site review by Geohominid April 30, 2008:
There are presently six functional performing versions of Mahler's sketched Tenth Symphony.
He left fully scored versions of the first and third movements, with the rest completed in short
score of various complexities. The most recent edition by Italian musicologists Giuseppe Mazzuca
& Nicola Samale was premièred on 22 September 2001 in Perugia, Italy, with the Vienna Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Martin Sieghart. (Mazzuca and Samale are also known for their performing
version of the Finale of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony). They seem to have based their new version on
the magnificent work of Mahler scholar Deryck Cooke from the early 1960s, as updated by the Matthews
brothers and conductors such as Simon Rattle.
Interest in Mahler's 10th Symphony remains great, and there are steadily increasing numbers of performances
and recordings of the 'completed' movements of his score, and also of full performing versions. The matter
of 'completion' of course remains highly controversial on a number of levels.
I first encountered Cooke's version in a BBC documentary made shortly after its completion, which was followed
by a filmed performance of the work by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in a highly-charged and
emotional performance. Ormandy was clearly in tears towards the end of the Finale. Hearing many subsequent live
and recorded performances have only deepened my conviction that at the very least, the purely musical
value of a good performing version is high, presenting a powerful and deeply affecting experience in itself.
The various scholarly completions of works by Bruckner, Schubert and Beethoven are, to my mind, no more than
curiosities, heard once and discarded by listeners. However, the sketches for the Mahler 10th contain wonderfully
powerful music in full linear flow. They represent the work at the time of his death, and indicate that Mahler
was taking a new direction after his near collapse in the Ninth Symphony. It seems to me that in his case the
performing versions add much to our understanding of his art. Certainly the previous editions of the Tenth have
been criticised for some bare patches in the orchestration of the 3 movements left in short score, but i didn't
really notice this in the present recording.
Sieghart and his Arnhem Orchestra established fine Mahlerian credentials with their recent Das Lied von der Erde
on the same label. Indeed there are evident connections between that work and this new 10th Symphony. They share
a chamber-like scoring (clear in the completed movements), and the evocation of intense and deeply introspective
emotions.
Compared with Simon Rattle's recording of the Cook-Matthews version on EMI DVD-A, Sieghart is around a minute
slower than Rattle in each movement, except in the Purgatorio. It is not easy to discern how much of this owes to
the Samale and Mazzucca tempo adjustments based on their reading of the manuscripts, and how is much to Sieghart's
instincts. Making comparisons between Rattle and Sieghart suggests that the latter's ability to allow the music to
breathe, but investing it with even more light, shade and contrast than Rattle, made for the more compelling
experience. Certainly the previous performing versions of the Tenth have been criticised for some bare
patches in the orchestration of those movements left in short score, but I didn't really notice this in the present
recording.
The Arnhem Philharmonic players owe little to their Berlin counterparts in commitment and skill in this recording.
Sieghart has an advantage in arranging his band with first violins and cellos to the left, seconds and violas to
the right, basses centre and rear, and the complex overlapping string parts have never sounded so clear and their
polyphony so effective. Mahler himself paid great attention to the spatial arrangement of his forces when conducting
his own works. The strings are sweet, even when approaching their stratospheric regions, and in their
lower registers they have fine depth of tone. The violas in particular are singled out for long passages
alone in the first movement, singing one of Mahler's great love songs for his wife Alma, and they acquit themselves
admirably. The build-up to the notorious great dissonant chord, an epitome of anguish with no less than 9 clashing
notes, is almost unbearably tense. The dense chord itself, with a screaming trumpet on top and a huge bass drum at
the bottom, is terrifying here, so the following tender release is the more effective.
Sieghart's broader approach to the two scherzo movements also allows much greater characterisation of Mahler's ironic
echoes of Knaben Wunderhorn songs and his obsession with the rustic ländler, making Rattle's faster tempos sound
clipped and rather pressured. In the Finale, again about the young Alma and the composer's 'Madonna Complex', as Freud
put it, Sieghart keeps the threnody fresh and flowing, so the music surges and breathes with the life-blood of Mahler's
love. It becomes the echo of the composer's scrawls of 'Almschi!, Almschi!' (Mahler's pet name for his wife), scrawled
across the manuscript at this point. At the end, Sieghart and his players reach a final great sigh of warmth and tenderness,
whereas Rattle tends to let the strands fade into nothingness as in the finale of the Ninth. With Sieghart, Mahler
is moving on. The whole performance also made me realise how modern Mahler's tonality is in this work, and I strongly
felt there were echoes of Richard Strauss' avant-garde opera Salome (1903-5), one important dissonant motive in the Finale
being very close to Strauss' leitmotif for Salome's twisted mind.
Thankfully, Exton's recording in the Concert Hall, Musis Sacrum, Arnhem is as fine as that for their Das Lied disc.
The surround sound is spacious with a consistent perspective, allowing the great climaxes to blossom to full effect,
but maintaining the detailed delicacy of the chamber-like score. Its dynamic range is impressive, and the bass drum is
given due weight, especially in its shocking muffled blows during the last movement (Mahler took his idea for this effect
from a New York fireman's funeral procession which passed beneath the window of his Manhattan apartment). Exton also
provide a large folded sheet with many musical excerpts, comparing what they rather regrettably term the S&M version
with the C (Cooke) version at various points, and these are tied into the Japanese text, which include a note by Alma
Zsolnay-Mahler, the composer's grand-daughter.
This is a significant and deeply moving performance of the Tenth; Mahler purists will probably avoid it on principle,
others will be rewarded with a telling musical journey.
Copyright © 2008 John Miller and SA-CD.net
Sieghart gab einmal mehr eine Studie seiner Bruckner-Interpretation, nicht auf Dezibel und
Monumentalität, sondern auf subtile Ausformung der musikalischen Inhalte ausgerichtet.
Telegraaf, Thiemo Wind
Martin Sieghart conducts Wagner`s Tannhäuser overture as thoug handcuffed, sculpting the tiniest, shiest sounds
from the horns and lower woodwind during the opening Pilgrim´s Chorus.
Times, London
Beethovens Neunte Symphonie zum Jahreswechsel hat Tradition. Mit breiter, leidenschaftlicher Geste führte Martin
Sieghart, der kurzfristig für den erkrankten Vladimir Fedosejew eingesprungen ist, die Wiener Symphoniker zu einer
durchwegs runden Leistung. Auffallend ist die elegische Leichtigkeit, mit der Sieghart vor allem im langsamen Satz
eine ungemein dichte Klangregie evozierte. Eine emotionale Stringenz, die vom hervorragend disponierten Chor
(Wiener Singakademie, Concentus Vocalis) verstärkt wurde. Hart skandiert hingegen die schnellen Passagen, womit
ein interessanter Widerpart geschaffen wurde. [...]
Wiener Zeitung
Sieghart is nook ravissanter dan despinas dijbeen.
Volkskraant
This is the finest recording of Schmidt's symphony Nr. 4 to date. As this conductor and orchestra have recently
proved in Camerata recordings of the First, Third, and Fourth Symphonies of Anton Bruckner, they can match and
sometimes exceed the world's foremost orchestras in sheer discipline and clarity of ensemble.
Fanfare
Sieghart ist ein begnadeter Musikant und gewiß kein, die Showgeste suchender Dirigent...,
Die Presse
Die Live-Aufzeichnung aus dem Wiener Musikvereinsaal unter der Leitung von Martin Sieghart besticht durch ihre
orchestralen und chorischen Qualitäten. Der herbe Tonfall Pfitzners soll nicht zelebriert, sondern expressiv
aufgeladen und gelegentlich sogar dramatisch zugespitzt werden.
Klassik heute
Guiseppe Verdis Messa da Requiem für Soli, Chor und Orchester stand im Linzer Brucknerhaus auf dem Programm:
Martin Sieghart leitete die Ausführenden zu einer berührenden Interpretation der Themen Tod, Trauer und Hoffnung an.
Kronenzeitung
Sieghart is provided with a modern, dynamic and offensive style, at the same time he reveals the profoundness of music.
Martin Sieghart is a great conductor!
ONGAKU-HO-JOME, monthly magazine, Tokyo
.., et la qualité de ce disque laisse espérer une prompte importation des gravures des symphonies du maître de Saint-Florian
par le même Martin Sieghart, certainement un chef à suivre.
DIAPASON
Sieghart verstaat het Mahler-idioom als de beste...Ich habe seit Jahren keine so überzeugende Aufnahme der 6. Mahler gehört.
Das Orchester hat sich damit einen Platz in den internationalen Top erworben......Der Wiener Sieghart versteht das Mahler-Idiom
wie kein anderer und realisiert die unterschiedlichen Stimmungen ideal. Mahlers Wehmut, sein kurzfristiger Optimismus, die
Naturverbundenheit, der Sarkasmus und schließlich die Hoffnungslosigkeit kommen optimal zur Geltung, und das hat eine
außerordentliche Aufführung zur Folge. Manchmal nimmt der Dirigent ein Tempo gewagt langsam. Das aber bleibt vollkommen
logisch innerhalb seines Gesamtkonzeptes....Meiner Meinung nach ist diese CD würdig für den Edison. Kein Musikliebhaber
kann um diese 6. herum, auch wenn er mehrere davon in seinem CD-Schrank stehen hat.
Luister vom august 2005
...die Musik des Walzerkönigs, von den Wiener Symphonikern und Martin Sieghart mit unvergleichlichem Charme gespielt...
Kurier