Mahler - Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" / Claudio Abbado, Eteri Gvazava, Anna Larsson, Orfeon Donostiarra, Lucerne Festival Orch

This 2003 DVD from the Lucerne Festival has a great deal to recommend it. As far as I know this is the only DVD of the Mahler Second. Claudio Abbado had just left as the Berlin Philharmonic music director, had regained his health, and is conducting his hand-picked Lucerne Festival Orchestra in which many principals from European orchestras spend part of the summer making music. These include, among others, Kolja Blacher, violin; Wolfram Christ, viola; Adolf Posch, bass; Natalia Gutman, cello; Emmanuel Pahud, flute; Mark Templeton, trombone; as well as members of the Hagen and Berg Quartets. Sabine Meyer, clarinettist, is there, as is the marvelous oboist Albrecht Mayer. The rest of the orchestra is mostly made up of young musicians who are members of Abbado's Mahler Chamber Orchestra, one of the best such groups in Europe, perhaps the world. The two singers are just as wonderful. Eteri Gvazava, native of Siberia, lends her ethereally beautiful voice to the small but important soprano part. When, in the fifth movement, her voices rises out of and then soars above the choral sound-mass, it is goose-bump time. The Swedish contralto Anna Larsson, a singer new to me, has a rich, velvety voice and when she sings 'O glaube' one's heart almost stops from the beauty of it.

Abbado is, of course, a world-class Mahlerian whose DVDs of the Fifth and Ninth I've already reviewed glowingly. This performance is the equal of those. He conducts without score, molding the performance with fiery eye contact, a 'beautiful left hand' (as British conductor Daniel Harding has termed it) and absolutely clear stick technique. The dynamic range of this performance is extremely wide and the audio conveys it faithfully. The climaxes are shattering, but the pianissimi are equally effective. This is a gorgeously thought-out performance. And Abbado is not let down by his orchestra. Just listen to the brass chorale at the beginning of the fourth movement, or Blacher's several solo violin passages, or Mayer's and Emma Schied's solo passages on oboe and English horn. The rich mass of tone from the string section is thrilling in that march section in the last movement. The large chorus, Orfeón Donostiarra, a group from the Basque region of Spain, are marvelous, with a dynamic range from the softest whisper ('Auferstehen') to the most stirring declamato section one is likely to hear. All in all, this is very nearly as good as it gets.

Strongly recommended.