Mahler: Symphony No. 5.(Sir Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra)(Product/Service Evaluation)

Sir Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. EMI 7243 5 57385 2.

"Wouldn't you just die without Mahler?"--Educating Rita, 1983. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven may still reign supreme over the classical concert hall but I doubt that anyone has sold more high-end audiophile systems than Mahler. His music is so dynamic, so diverse, so melodic, and so instantly recognizable that it has been the darling of the home listener for nearly 40 years, ever since the days Walter, Bernstein, Solti, and Klemperer reintroduced it to the musical world. It is appropriate, if a bit redundant, to have an additional solid entry in the field, this one from Sir Simon Rattle and his newly acquired Berlin Philharmonic.

The Fifth Symphony is another of those massive Mahler works that displays the composer's diversity and can be interpreted in a variety of ways. My own favorite has long been the heart-on-its-sleeve approach of another "Sir," Sir John Barbirolli, from 1969, also on EMI. But it's good to hear the contrasts another conductor brings to the work.

Perhaps it's just me, but I've never been able fully to reconcile all the disparate elements of the Fifth Symphony, and it's only been Barbirolli that's made the piece seem of a whole. The work begins with two serious, heavy-duty movements that Mahler considered one long, boisterous funeral march. For all the world they sound more like an Irish wake th_an a funeral. These are followed by a typically bizarre Mahlerian Scherzo that changes the tone entirely to the lighter side; succeeded by the well-known Adagietto, which the composer supposedly wrote as a love letter for his wife, that acts as an isle of tranquility; and the opus is concluded by a huge Rondo-Finale that returns us to the clamorous mood of the beginning but without a hint of the earlier portentousness.

Rattle does a sensible job keeping everything moving apace, but even he has ...