Mahler 5th Adagietto Willem Mengelberg Concertgebouw

1926 recording of Mahler Symphony No. 5 by Willem Mengelberg and his Concertgebouw orchestra

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• music
• Historic
• Mahler
• 5th
• symphony
• adagietto
• Mengelberg
• 78rpm
• Concertgebouw
• death
• venice

[mick2cu]

I love the use of portamento, the musical snobs who would laugh at this today obviously have no passion in their hearts!

[shellac1925]

What a truly great performance! It's hard, after listening to this, to imagine it at any other tempo- what a shame it is that every other conductor except Walter drags this out as if it's the slow movement from Beethoven's Ninth. And what a great recording quality for a record from 1926! The portamento takes a little getting used to, but I think it's appropriate.

[katiechan4]

finally i find the adagietto that sounds more like a love song. :D

[AfroPoli]

This is a wonderfully stirring recording, dense and yet transparent, unsentimental and yet very romantic. Great Mengelberg!

[1401JSC]

@shellac1925

Mahler wrote Adagietto as the title of the movement, but stuck "sehr langame" (very slow) as a tempo indication.This gives lots of leeway to conductors to find a tempo.

[1401JSC]

@pelahale

Piano rolls had a limited time, so tempi were adapted to record whole musical chunks on one cylinder...

BTW at about 5mins, can't we hear a slight break in the recording, as if edited?

7:37 = 3 x 2½ minutes.

[1401JSC]

@petrof4056

Brahms, Elgar, Mahler. It may be appropriate to indulge in portamenti, though only the latter composer actually marked them in his scores.

Though only once in this movement, as far as I can see in the score.

If instrumental portamenti are an effort to give 'vocal' expression to melodic lines, one could ask if upward and downward motion merit the same treatment, or if there is an esthetical difference between an upward portée de voix and a downward degueulando :)

[1401JSC]

@pelahale

Adagietto, not adagio !

You probably prefer a slower tempo because you listened very often to a slow version. Repeated hearings condition our taste.

[petrof4056]

@mick2cu Ho I agree with you, the lack of portamento makes me sick, particularly for this piece

[bbnjmnglrx]

@mick2cu if passion were to be measured by liking or disliking portamento, it would be easy.

[bbnjmnglrx]

gutstrings rule!



[pelahale]

based on Mahler's piano-roll recordings, this tempo is probably about right. But I prefer this piece slower in order to truly drink in the harmonies and textures. This is one of those musical pieces which deserves the orgasmic beatifice treatment.