Bruckner: Symphony No.9
Zubin Mehta / Vienna Philharmonic (Decca Eloquence)
(scroll down for English review)
上星期推出了蒂利文和維也納愛樂，預計會成為布魯克納交響曲全集錄音的第二集：《第三交響曲》，可是聽了兩次都覺得很普通，演奏及錄音亦然，評來都多餘。記起維也納愛樂在1960及70年代，在Decca跟六位指揮錄了一套布魯克納交響曲全集。其中《第九》是由梅塔指揮，他今天（4月29日）85歲生日。
真想不到這錄音，兼容圓渾及鋒芒，弦樂滑溜，銅管有勁而不刺耳，我覺得許多所謂發燒的模擬錄音，其實都未到這種層次，純粹大聲而已。心想這應該是70年代的錄音，翻看資料居然是1965年，這年是Decca完成在維也納完成蘇提《指環》的一年。但更重要的是，當時的梅塔只是29歲，便把布魯克納及維也納愛樂都駕馭得這麼好，現在的所謂英雄出少年真的不算甚麼。
梅塔在較陽剛的地方，不會衝得太盡，要真正出力才用力，抒情之處也會適量放慢，讓維也納愛樂的弦樂盡情歌唱。第三樂章奏得最為熾熱，不協和高潮並未把熱力燒盡，之後的一兩分鐘才是真正斷腸之時。
Last week Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic just released their second disc of a projected Bruckner symphony cycle. But I gave it (Third Symphony) two tries yet I found it too mediocre, both in terms of the playing and the engineering. Then it came to my mind that the Vienna Philharmonic once recorded a Bruckner set with six conductors on Decca during the 1960s and 1970s. Mehta, whose 85th birthday is on April 29, did the Ninth Symphony.
It’s incredible that this recording could be rounded and razor-sharp at once. The brass was powerful without being brassy and the strings were so glowing. To me many so-called audiophile recordings of the analogue era weren’t up to that standard, those were just loud. I thought this recording must be from the 1970s but it was actually made in 1965. That year Decca finally completed Solti’s Ring Cycle in Vienna but the point is, Mehta was just 29 when he made this recording. It was astonishing he could manage both Bruckner and the Vienna Philharmonic so well at such a young age.
In the masculine moments Mehta knew when to push, and his holding back the tempi during the tender moments were done in good taste, and allowing the Vienna strings to sing their hearts out. The third movement was especially scorching, Mehta didn’t go full throttle on the dissonant climax, leaving energy for the next couple of minutes which were truly gut-wrenching.