Mahler 4

The DVD is a killer invention suited to a killer musical program. It is helpful to our understanding the drama of opera, movies, and symphonic works performed by a symphony orchestra. It is easy to see how “catching on” to an opera (or a feature film) depends on the body language and facial expressions of the players. It’s more difficult to explain how a video representation of an orchestra at play helps us “get” a mostly auditory experience. Some people use orchestral music to fall asleep by, after all. Others like to watch the byplay of the musicians, how they hand off to one another. Some insist watching an orchestra play is as exciting as watching jazz musicians play off one another. How does this work?

Ondine is pleased to announce the debut release of charismatic mezzo-soprano Virpi Räisänen. Having already performed as a successful violinist, Virpi Räisänen has since appeared as a singer at the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Netherlands Opera and the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher in Nono’s opera Al gran sole carico d’amore in 2009 and in the premiere of Wolfgang Rihms’s Dionysos in 2010.

If you can get past the 1940s monaural sound (and if you are not already familiar with this performance, you will get a shock). This is the gentlest, most right sounding rendition I have ever heard. The tempi are uncommonly brisk, though they never sound that way. The third movement has never sounded more beautiful. Halban is perfect in the finale. Walter passed away before he could record this work in stereo. His later performances were very different and I'm still not sure whether or not his later slower tempos and even greater expression were an improvement.

The first chapter of an exciting new recording project. The portrait of a master composer at the top of his game. Exploring two of the most remarkable, creative and game-changing years in music history: 1785 & 1786.