Symphony No. 2 in C minor ``Resurrection''

Berlin Staatskapelle conducted by Pierre Boulez

Title Reviewed and Reviewer Qualifications

This is a review of a recording made by EuroArts of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Pierre Boulez. The orchestra was joined by the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin prepared by Eberhard Friedrich. Mezzo-soprano Petra Lang sang the featured alto part and Diana Damrau was the featured soprano. The performance was recorded live in high-definition video at the Berlin Philharmonie on March 26-27, 2005 as part of a festival honoring Boulez, who turned 80 on March 26. EuroArts first published their recording in DVD format (catalog number: 2054418). But this is a review of the same recording published (on February 1, 2008) by EuroArts in HD DVD (catalog number: 2054414).

This was the first symphony to be published in HDVD. EuroArts will always have bragging rights for this achievement. But the HD DVD presentation chosen by EuroArts turned out to be short-lived. Toshiba abandoned HD DVD on February 19, 2008, just 18 days after EuroArts published our review disc.

This may turn out to be only symphonic work ever to be published in HD DVD. EuroArts should not be criticized for publishing in HD DVD. To the contrary, they deserve praise for their courage in entering the cross-fire of the form factor wars. EuroArts said early in 2008 that they have no plans to publish this in Blu-ray also (which would be their third video of the same concert.) So if you have an HD DVD player and this disc, hang on to them!

I am Henry C. McFadyen, Jr., CV0. I have considerable experience as a classical music fan, and I have heard my fair share of symphony music, live and recorded. But I am a novice at Mahler, a conductor that I considered in the past too high on the mountain for me. I call our review recording here the ``Boulez 2005 Mahler Symphony 2 HD DVD,'' and I sometimes refer to the piece as ``Mahler S2.''

The Boulez 2005 Mahler Symphony 2 HD DVD Disc

The Boulez 2005 Mahler Symphony 2 HD DVD is in 1080i using the VC-1 video codec. The disc has 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. Brief liner notes by Wolfgang Stähr describe how this performance was part of an ``Homage to Pierre Boulez'' celebrating his birthday. Playing time is 89 minutes. Bonus items (advertising other EuroArts titles) provide irrefutable proof how execrable DVD looks compared to HDVD.

I reviewed this on my Sony KDL 52'' XBR4 in my small home theater supported by a Toshiba HD-XA2 player, a Denon AVR-888 receiver, and a 5.1 set of KEF Q Series speakers with a Gallo subwoofer.

The Performance

The venue is the ultra-modern Berlin Philharmonie building that is home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted in 2008 by Simon Rattle) located south of the Tiergarten. This performance is by the Staatskapelle Berlin, which is the orchestra of the Berlin State Opera House. The Staatskapelle Berlin usually plays at its home at the Berliner Staatsoper, located on Unter den Linden about a mile away from the Philharmonie building. (Daniel Barenboim was the principle conductor of the Staatsoper in 2005, and the camera shows him and his son Michael several times in the audience.)

So here we have an orchestra and choir performing a complicated piece in a foreign house under a guest conductor who probably didn't get much rehearsal time--and everybody knows they are going on record with the latest electronics. This is tempting disaster. But with a fear factor, you can also get, as here, an especially sharp performance.

The show opens with Boulez moving to the podium, and the camera shows a bit of the orchestra and the audience. We are dealing here with elites, but everything is so democratic! Boulez directs without baton and looks like a retired lawyer prepared to deliver a eulogy. Male performers wear dark suits with whatever neckwear they like, ranging from black bow tie to iridescent metallic modern. Ladies wear their choice of black. The festival audience was even more democratic with sport shirts and the like.

First Movement.

This movement is considered to be a ``funeral rite.'' It is built around two themes that are repeated and embellished. The first theme is a brusk, jarring funeral march introduced by the basses and cellos. It is counterbalanced by a lovely melody brought in by the upper strings. I am not qualified to say what is going on in this movement in terms of music theory. But I believe it well illustrates several aspects of Mahler's music style. First, he likes to take a limited number of themes and repeat them many times with as broad a range of instrumentation and tone colors as he can invent. Second, he creates interest with extreme changes in volume, unexpected punctuation by various instruments, and long, dramatic pauses. This makes his music seem modern even today although it is late romantic and was written before the advent of 20th century ``modern music'' with its dissonance, deconstruction, and radical invention.

Many different instruments get the spotlight as the funeral rite progresses. The camera stays close on the featured players, and the picture is so clear that you have the feeling right away that you are getting to know them. You also see how wonderful the instruments are with the variety of materials and finishes in their construction.

Then suddenly, at 07:00, the camera pulls back to show the magnitude of the forces at risk. You see a whole Roman legion of performers coming at you. The strings (all possibly available) and winds (double everything) are jammed in the foreground filling the horizon. Next the percussion battery forms a juggernaut of men and heavy stuff across the whole stage (8 timpani). Behind that are the ranks of the chorus. A narrow path is left in this mass of bodies and instruments for the solo singers to negotiate when they come on stage. It's most impressive. (And, of course, it doesn't show the organ or the 4 horns, 4 or more trumpets, timpani, and base drum that are hidden off-stage at the other end of the hall behind the audience.)

Now that the camera has shown us the order of battle, the funeral rite progresses. This should not, however, be confused, say, with Beethoven's funeral march in the Eroica symphony, which depicts (however ineffably) a funeral cortege. Mahler goes further. He isn't describing something happening on a boulevard. With wave on wave of crescendos and diminuendos, Mahler expresses all that is going on in the minds of the mourners as they remember the joys, victories, disappointments, calamities, and disasters they lived through with the fallen hero. The tumult reaches its climax in two famous dissonant chords (more about this later) and the movement then unwinds and ends with notes played so softly that they can hardly be heard.

Second Movement.

After the fearsome first movement, Mahler will now take us, as I hear and see it, through the stages of life leading to the resurrection. The score calls for a pause of five minutes before the journey begins. This is shortened these days just long enough for the orchestra members to catch their breaths. In our performance the solo singers also enter and weave their ways to their perches between the orchestra and the chorus. The second movement--light and lyrical with just a bit of sturm-und-drang brass and percussion added--depicts happy days, or to me, the pleasures and stresses of youth. Especially striking are passages with plucked strings, the double harps, and flutes. The stage is brightly illuminated, and this aids the work of the cameramen. It is surprisingly interesting to see Mahler pass the themes around to different sections and soloists and to see how beautifully the cameras portray the musicians.

Third Movement

Now we progress to the life of an adult with its work-a-day activities, concerns, and inevitable frustrations. This movement begins with wake-up whacks on the kettle drums. By now you feel the know the players better. You can see and hear their emotions springing from the pages of the score. Some of them are so young! Some are wound up like a catapults. But another is grinning like a side man at a jam session. Brilliant solos and section passages, especially in the woodwinds, slowly gather in intensity until we reach what is called (in the Wikipedia article) a ``cry of despair'' or ``death-shriek.'' This sets us up for the release of tension that will follow in the fourth and fifth movements.

Fourth Movement

Suddenly, we are impelled into the fourth movement and faced head-on with Petra Lang.

Lang's appearance in close-up is startlingly vibrant. She is too pugnacious to be deemed pretty, but everything about her is gorgeous. Start with her art deco coiffure--the only time I can remember in my life admiring a woman's hair as a work of art. And then there is her glowing make-up perfectly matched to her warm, apricot-toned hair and skin blush. One notices a singer's mouth of course, and Lang's is extraordinarily expressive with full, bright red lips and strong white teeth. Undergirding her image is a strand of gleaming pearls and her tailored white dress ordained with rich white beadwork. Lang instantly posits and proves her case: every woman can be a beauty! Behind Lang is a tapestry of faces of the mixed chorus. The earnestness and humility of their expressions looks like a Norman Rockwell illustration.

Lang opens the movement singing:

German O Röschen roth!

English O rosebud red!

This is followed by a solemn brass choir.

Lang then continues:

German Der Mensch liegt in größter Noth! Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein! Je lieber möcht ich im Himmel sein.

English Man lies in greatest need! Man lies in greatest pain! I would rather be in heaven!

Lang is German, and she doesn't have to worry about the pronunciation and diction of that exacting language. She can focus on the meaning of the words. Every nuance of her voice and facial expression is captured by the mike and camera as she sings with singular feeling, conviction, and power.

Lang continues:

German Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg; da kam ein Engelein and wollt' mich abweisen. Ach nein! Ich liess mich nicht abweisen! Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott! Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen Geben, Wird leuchten mir bis in das ewig, selig Leben!

English Then I came upon a broad road; and an angel wanted to turn me aside. Ah no! I would not turn aside! I came from God and will return to God! God will give me a little lamp, Will show me the way to eternal life!

My friends, no angel could stop this lady! Mission accomplished, Lang is blissfully radiant.

Fifth Movement

The fifth movement lasts 38 minutes, but this time passes fast. It opens like a volcano venting lava and steam--the day of resurrection has come. Mahler continues his rotations through the instruments and sections. By the end, all forces will be fully engaged. But as in any grand procession, the brass and percussion will predominate.

Several times horns, trumpets, and percussion play from the rear of the audience. When I first viewed this disc, I didn't know this, and I thought what I was hearing was the orchestra on the stage throughout. I don't have the score, and I still don't know for certain what what Boulez actually did. But after careful listening, I think I can identify the off-stage parts (somebody correct me if I'm wrong).

From 49:54 until 50:25, the main orchestra falls silent. Off-stage brass softly play an other-worldly ``call from afar'' announcing the resurrection. Off-stage brass play again, this time together with the orchestra on stage, for a short time from about 52:50.

At 54:58, Mahler writes, now just for on-stage forces, what I think is the most noble and serene brass choir I've ever heard. Those who have been called to heaven, I suppose, are now in formation, ready, and answering.

Next the tympani players lead the percussion in huge crescendos, and this starts a frantic parade towards glory. (At 01:01:10, an extra percussionist joins the two regular tympani players.) The parade arrives at the portal to heaven. From 1:06:12 to 1:08:15, we hear more off-stage brass and percussion. A flute, a piccolo, and other instruments on stage join in a ``beck and call'' exchange with the off-stage players--a kind of knocking on the door. And as this passage ends, the full choir enters singing softly. At last, Diana Damrau joins the choir with a soaring voice. From then on, the orchestra, chorus, Lang, and Damrau work together towards the final climax with whole sections of players almost leaping out of their seats with exertion. At the grand conclusion everybody is at maximum forte and Mahler piles on the scrummage with an organ and untuned steel plates hammered to represent church bells.

All the off-stage parts in this movement must be a remarkably engaging when heard from the audience. In this recording, however, you get only a hint about this. As I discuss later, ``surround sound'' seems to mean something different from what I had thought.

The chorus, Lang, and Damrau sing the text of a poem from Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, modified by Mahler, called the ``Resurrection Ode. I have added the German text and English translation as an appendix to this review.

Mahler was a non-observant Jew who converted to Christianity. I carefully read the poetry used in this symphony, but I can't tell what kind of resurrection Mahler had in mind. According to Wikipedia, Pope John Paul II admired this work and the Boulez performance was on Easter Sunday. So it would seem that Mahler's resurrection is considered compatible with Christian theology. German poets often used naturalistic (and even erotic) imagery to depict Christ, and the red rosebud may be such a metaphor. Still, I see nothing else in the poetry to support this. To me, the poetry is just as suggestive of Eastern mysticism and the ideas of reincarnation as it is of Christian doctrine. (If you, dear reader, have researched this and can tell us what Mahler had in mind, I would like to hear from you.)

The Mahler S2 is popular, and there are many recordings on the market including at least 6 DVDs. CV3, who played this symphony as a percussionist in his student orchestra, conducted a census and found nine recordings, including 2 DVDs, of Mahler S2 on his shelves. He considers the Boulez 2005 Mahler Symphony 2 HD DVD to be superior to his other recordings because it alone, in his words, `` imparts the spirituality'' of the piece that he came to know while playing it as a young person.

This accolade is enough for me. And it rhymes with the affection I feel for the disc. It's the only video of a symphony that I have seen that I would consider worth keeping. It's so sad that so few people will get to enjoy this disc. Let's hope that EuroArts will relent and publish it in Blu-ray.

How Does the Boulez Disc Stack up to a Live Performance?

While writing this review, I saw in the Dallas Morning News that the Mahler S2 was to be performed by the Fort Worth Symphony on August 24, 2008. This was a golden opportunity to compare the Boulez disc to the real thing! So on Sunday evening I drove to the beautiful new Bass Performance Hall in our sister-city to hear Mahler S2 live. I was lucky enough to get a returned-ticket center orchestra seat that put me in roughly in the middle of the house.

While waiting for the performance to begin, I thought of an email I recently had received from Dr. Daniel Levitin (author of This is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs) about comparing a record to a live performance. These are different manifestations of the composer's score, he explained, because ``the way you hear out of 2 (or 6) loudspeakers is intrinsically different from hearing live music where the sound can emanate from a virtual infinity of points.'' I was about to hear and see proof of this comment.

Because I had viewed the Boulez 2005 Mahler Symphony HD DVD disc many times, I was able to anticipate (more or less) everything that I would hear--but the live performance sounded so different from what I remembered from my home theater! I will no describe four ways in which the live performance bested the HDVD and one way in which the HDVD was superior to the live show.

Let's consider first the four ways the live performance was superior:

1. Better overview. With only one visual sight-line for the whole performance, I saw the whole orchestra in live performance as a kind of landscape of sound from which various aural objects would appear. Just as Levitin suggested, I was able to tell by ear pretty well where the different sounds were coming from. Sometimes I had visual clues as to what was happening on stage, but I could still follow the origins of the sounds even when the players were hidden from view by other musicians. Early in the first movement, woodwinds led by two oboes enter with a memorable passage played over quiet massed strings. I knew this well from the recording. But in person it wasn't just a strange melody. I felt I was viewing a glowing lake veiled with mist from which some giant long-extinct bird was wailing its mating call. Later I heard crescendos ripple through the orchestra and I thought of human waves at a football game and of plasma plumes rising into space and then falling back into the surface of the sun.

   For almost all of history, all performances were live. And they were probably rarely done in the dark. We are used to seeing and hearing performances as a whole.

   You might ask why I bother to write about something that is so self-evident. Well, I have seen hundreds of performances (thousands maybe). It never occurred for me to think about this unity of sight and sound, or overview. But attending this live performance of Mahler S2 after learning the piece from the HDVD allowed me to experience the live performance tabula rasa--like I had never been to a live concert before. With a HDVD, you can experience an unlimited number of points of visual reference (as the camera plays roving reporter), but there are few points of origin of sound. This is not what we are used to. With a live performance, this is flipped the other way with an infinite number of points from which the sound can come but with a single visual overview. This is what we are used to.

2. Firm sense of location. In the live performance, I had a comfortable sense of knowing where I was. If t musicians were to play softly from the rear, I'm confident I would recognize immediately the unusual origin of the music. (As it turned out, Bass Hall is too small to pull off Mahler's sounds ``from afar'' trick. When the off-stage brass came in, the whole hall was filled with pealing fanfares that echoed around making it hard to tell what the heck was happening. Next time, the conductor will have to send the brass and drums out into the street.) With our 360 degree hearing and sensitive peripheral vision, we are ever alert to danger from any quarter and always feel better if we know where we are. This sense of place is completely lost when viewing something in HDVD because your location is wherever the cameraman and the sound engineer puts you.

   This brings us to a consideration of the question, ``What is surround sound?'' The Boulez 2005 Mahler Symphony 2 HD DVD plays back in ``surround sound,'' but that doesn't mean that you hear the performance in your home theater as a member of a live audience would hear it. If that were the meaning of the term, then music played from the rear of the hall would come from mostly or only from the rear speakers, and this in not the case with my system (which according to my Joe Kane test disc is working correctly). I think that the term ``surround sound'' in correction with an HDVD recording of a symphony probably means that you hear the music like the engineer who mixes the sounds collected from many microphones set up all over the stage and maybe elsewhere in the auditorium. And so the engineer surrounds you with a nice blend of the many sounds he captures making sure that you can clearly hear the various soloists as they are features on the video. Apparently only the most advanced high-end audio labels, such as AIX Records, pay any attention to this issue. AIX, for example, undertakes to provide in its recording alternative points of view called ``stage'' and ``audience.''

3. Better fidelity. No matter how good a performance may sound in my home theater, the real deal will always sound better. Performed live in Bass Hall, everything was more vivid, full, rich, and authentic than I remembered from my HDVD. This was brought home in an unexpected way. I mentioned early in this review two dissonant chords used by Mahler late in the first movement. Although I knew about the chords, I had not identified them in my home theater as I listened to the general cacophony late in the first movement. But when I heard them played live, it was obvious how different they were from the tone of the rest of the movement and that these were the famous dissonant chords. Now that I have been introduced to them in person, I recognize them in my home theater as well, but they still don't sound nearly as dissonant as they should. (OK, you may have a lot nicer home theater than me, but I never heard of anyone who seriously maintained that his equipment would sound as good as the original performance.)

4. Suspense or home-field factor. Finally, nothing beats being there live when anything can happen. Successfully playing the difficult Mahler S2 was a milestone for the fledgling Fort Worth Symphony. Well, the performance started 20 minutes late reportedly because the conductor got sick! But then all went well; and when finished, the musicians and the audience were all jumping around like at a championship sports event!

I'm glad to know of scientific studies on this. But this isn't necessary for me--meeting Petra Lang in my home theater was all the convincing I will ever need. A very nice lady signing mezzo appeared with the Fort Worth Symphony to sing Urlicht and the alto part in the last movement. She stood right at the edge of the stage and was amplified. From 18 rows back I couldn't see her that well and could barely hear her. I have already stated that I would rather hear the Fort Worth Symphony again than see my HDVD another time. But I'll but lucky to ever see and hear a mezzo singing live with a symphony who will be able to compete with the memory I have of Petra.

What is HDVD Good For?

It's probably not helpful to ask such questions as, ``Does the recording sound as good as the actual performance?'' or ``How close is the video to being there?'' Recordings will likely never be able to render something that anyone would confuse with the real thing.

More helpful questions would be, ``At what point does the quality of a recording produce a manifestation of the composer's score that is worth my time?'' or ``What is HDVD good for?'' The degree of fidelity of the aural and visual reproduction obviously is the starting point. Based on my own observations over many years and on the work described by Dr. Levitin, I think it is important to have a relatively high-resolution visual presentation to support high fidelity sound. Answers to my helpful questions may always be subjective. My answers now, based in part on the factors discussed in this this review, are as follows:

1. No recording likely will ever rival (much less equal) a live performance by the same performers.
2. High fidelity sound has for decades given consumers a satisfactory listening experience. This led to the development of a substantial industry providing fine art sound recordings to an elite market.
3. But a complete listening experience requires the addition of a visual record. Alas, the visual quality of VHS and DVD was too low to support high-fidelity sound recording. For this reason, the the market for fine art videos has never taken off.
4. HDVD for the first time gets us over the threshold where the visual recording adequately enhances the sound recording.
   1. At 1080p, the visual experience is fully adequate for productions by smaller groups of performing artists. In large-scale productions, 1080p is fully adequate for close-up and mid-range depiction of the artists. 1080p is only minimally adequate for performances where the artists must use all the area of a modern orchestra or opera stage.
   2. For a fully satisfactory experience of material presented on a big stage, we still must look forward to 4K or similar higher resolution recording technology. This technology must allow us to see artists at the back of a stage with about the same decree of detail that a live spectator at the far end of actual venue can resolve by eye.
5. A live performance by competent artists usually will be superior to a recording by superior artists even when one can tell that the recorded artists are performing at a higher level of professional skill. There may be exceptions to this rule. For example, after absorbing the recorded performance of Urlicht by Petra Lang in the Boulez 2005 Mahler Symphony 2 HD DVD, I am not likely to be much impressed by a live performance by a lesser soloist unless I'm lucky enough to be seated right in front of her.
6. The HDVD experience is not intended to compete with or be a replacement for live performance. An HDVD recording is a different manifestation of the composer's score than a live recording.
   1. But HDVD does now allows consumers to enjoy fine-arts performances, on demand, that are aurally and visually satisfying.
   2. Consumers will find HDVD recordings especially useful for learning about a composition.
   3. HDVD recordings will likely become important new resources for teachers and students of music, dance, and drama.
   4. HDVD may be able to provide some new things to the art world:
      1. HDVD recordings can give close-up renditions of artists in larger works in a way that is radically different from seeing a live performance.
      2. HDVD recordings can give the consumer a choice of both video and aural viewpoints.
         1. As to video, the program could show the performance from a single ``best seat in the house.'' In addition, the program could show an alternate with multiple cameras acting as roving reporter.
         2. As to sound, the program might allow the consumer to elect to enjoy the performance from the best seat or from the engineer's control room (which would track, of course, the video shot by the roving reporter). The Boulez 2005 Mahler Symphony HD DVD provides sound from the viewpoint of the engineer's control room. From this viewpoint, you can't tell anything about the origin of the off-stage music. From the viewpoint of the best seat, the consumer would hear the off-stage brass coming out of the rear speakers only.
7. Artists and producers of fine arts live programs should embrace HDVD recordings. Up to now, the fine arts have enjoyed market support for recordings only from a small group of elite consumers of high fidelity sound. But now everyone with a home theater can learn more about fine arts performances. Because no recording can rival the real thing, this will insure an increased demand to see live performances as well. And HDVD will allow even relatively small performance companies to have a shot at world-wide markets.

Appendix: Resurrection Ode

German Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n Wirst du, Mein Staub, Nach kurzer Ruh'! Unsterblich Leben! Unsterblich Leben wird der dich rief dir geben! Wieder aufzublüh'n wirst du gesät! Der Herr der Ernte geht und sammelt Garben uns ein, die starben! O glaube, mein Herz, o glaube: Es geht dir nichts verloren! Dein ist, ja dein, was du gesehnt! Dein, was du geliebt, Was du gestritten! O glaube Du wardst nicht umsonst geboren! Hast nicht umsonst gelebt, gelitten! Was entstanden ist Das muß vergehen! Was vergangen, auferstehen! Hör' auf zu beben! Bereite dich zu leben! O Schmerz! Du Alldurchdringer! Dir bin ich entrungen! O Tod! Du Allbezwinger! Nun bist du bezwungen! Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen, In heißem Liebesstreben, Werd'ich entschweben Zum Licht, zu dem kein Aug'gedrungen! Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen Werde ich entschweben. Sterben werd'ich, um zu leben! Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu! Was du geschlagen zu Gott wird es dich tragen!

English Rise again, yes, rise again, Will you My dust, After a brief rest! Immortal life! Immortal life Will He who called you, give you. To bloom again were you created! The Lord of the harvest goes And gathers in, like sheaves, Us together, who die. O believe, my heart, O believe: Nothing to you is lost! Yours is, yes yours, is what you desired Yours, what you have loved What you have fought for! O believe, You were not born for nothing! Have not for nothing, lived, suffered! What was created Must perish, What perished, rise again! Cease from trembling! Prepare yourself to live! O Pain, You piercer of all things, From you, I have been wrested! O Death, You masterer of all things, Now, are you conquered! With wings which I have won for myself, In love's fierce striving, I shall soar upwards To the light which no eye has penetrated! Its wing that I won is expanded, and I fly up. Die shall I in order to live. Rise again, yes, rise again, Will you, my heart, in an instant! That for which you suffered, To God will it lead you!

Henry C. McFadyen, Jr. --- September 15, 2008