Mahler: Symphony No.10 (Adagio, Purgatorio)
Shostakovich: Symphony No.10
Jaap van Zweden / Hong Kong Philharmonic (Naxos)
(scroll down for English review)
香港疫情爆發前一個多月前的港樂演出，那時我正在歐遊（疫情前最後一次），看不到這場音樂會，現在由拿索斯把香港電台的錄音發行。所謂孟格堡版的馬勒十，並不是他把五個樂章完成，而是把馬勒生前大致完成配器的第一及三樂章，再做些小修小補。明顯的包括多了敲擊，好像也把一些音量改了，但大抵和聽慣的馬勒十慢板大同小異。
演奏卻不平凡，儘管弦樂聽來並非一流樂隊的質素，至少不夠開揚或好聽，但近年唱片上的馬勒十慢板，很少會像梵志登及港樂那般，拼盡老命的去拉。這也和梵志登用的速度稍快，港樂弦樂才可以拉得這麼激烈。只是香港電台的錄音及不上今天一般商業錄音的質素，一去到高潮就覺得撞到天花板，細聲時也有點霉。
蕭斯塔高維契也是梵志登拿手的，馬勒十的緊張也帶到蕭十之中，我最欣賞是第二樂章（軌四），梵志登並不是靠衝來營造爆炸力，倒是放慢一點，但對弦樂的運弓有很高要求，不容胡混過去，銅管的漸強或爆發也是仔細奏出。第三樂章（軌五）後半的高潮是我意想不到的猛烈，將前半的呆滯一掃而空。
然後梵志登在2020年一月只指揮到一場貝多芬，疫情便來了。現在雖走上復常之路，但梵志登的任期已時日不多，樂隊的質素也在這兩年來被磨蝕了。
Naxos released the RTHK tapes of this December 2019 concert, which was an unusual combination of Mahler 10 and Shostakovich 10. This so-called Mengelberg edition isn’t a completion a la Cooke, but this Mahler champion’s retouchings of the Adagio and Purgatorio which were more or less completed by Mahler. The additonal timpani rolls, triangle clinks are hard to miss but I think some dynamics have been adjusted as well.
Recordings of the Adagio, whether standalones or within the completed symphony, aren’t hard to find but van Zweden’s was way more intense than we’re now used to. The angst was already there long before the dissonant climax and van Zweden’s tempo was on the fast side which enabled such intense bowings. But I’m sorry to report that this RTHK recording couldn’t match the standards of commercial recordings today. The climaxes were undermined and softer passages were usually too damp.
The intensity was also present in Shostakovich 10 which was supposed to be van Zweden’s forte. What I like most is the second movement (track 4), the conductor took a slower tempo but whipped his strings into delivering hair-splitting articulations. The brass outbursts or crescendi were carefully calibrated. The climax of the third movements was surprisingly ferocious, as if a desperate attempt to shake off the previous sluggishness.