"And now for something completely different"I offer here for our amusement, a mini-blind listening comparison, of
Mahler's Symphony No.7, the 2nd movement -
Nachtmusik I (Allegro moderato).
The 7th is a large and diverse symphony, and Mahler himself was a multi-faceted symphonist - so it's no point pretending that this 5-minute fragment of music is anything other than what it is - a short extract to be considered on its own merits. It isn't going to indicate much about the symphony as a whole. (For the record, I don't actually even like Mahler's 7th - but I do very much enjoy the three inner movements and especially this one. Other people find this music trite and banal.)
Nachtmusik I is a 'quiet' pastoral movement about 15 minutes in length, which to my ears broadly falls into three sections, of which the middle one is presented here. This is episodic, largely static music, I might say it seems a bit like a dream sequence suspended between the more wayfarer-like bookends of music that start and end this movement. In some ways it may seem like untypical Mahler, but to me this music seems to lie right at the heart of what he does in the middle symphonies - a bit like the still eye of the storm.
We start about 5 mins in with a horn call recalling the main march theme that has set the tone in the music thus far. Then we get alpine cowbells (to varying degrees) oh we love our cowbells - we get a Mahlerian march - we get a comedy bows-strumming effect - we get Mahler's signature 'come to the cookhouse door' rhythm (first heard as long ago as in
Das Klagende Lied, but more obviously in his
1st symphony, 3rd movt) - here sliding sleazily into a most improbable tango - we get alpine birdsong, we are drifting off ... - we get a
sharp reveille with a comic twist ... and we stop there, after about 5 mins. I have
no idea what it all means!
Pace is obviously one point of comparison but orchestral balance, the many solo contributions, the micro-management by the conductor - are all things to listen for. All the recordings are good sound quality although one or two do stand out for their capturing of the detail.
4 samples in each group making for a listening time of about 20 minutes. 3 groups of 4.
Please note that the last sample in each group is extended a bit to give a more musical ending, bear this in mind if you're comparing timings, No.4 in each group has about 40 seconds extra.
Three zip files - not very user-friendly but I've found hosting anonymised mp3 files to be increasingly difficult, as most cloud-based storage sites simply analyse the unmarked file and restore the tagging, often even the cover image! Each zip is about 35-45Mb, and contains four mp3 files numbered 1 to 4.
A1-4:B1-4:C1-4:(links and files removed)
