Mahler: Symphony No.7
Kirill Petrenko / Bavarian State Orchestra (Bavarian Opera)
(scroll down for English review)
昨天談完V佩特連科，今天談更高地位的K佩特連科，現在領導柏林愛樂那位。他的舊東家巴伐利亞國立歌劇院創立了自家唱片品牌，第一擊就是K佩特連科在2018年的馬勒《第七交響曲》現場錄音。所謂「巴伐利亞國立管弦樂團」其實就是此歌劇院的樂團的名稱。佩特連科帶此團到台北巡迴時，其中一場節目就是馬勒五。
作為品牌首作，巴伐利亞國立歌劇院應該對這個演出很滿意，我亦相信會有很多樂迷及樂評人盛讚此錄音，不過我會提出質疑，並不是此演奏欠佳，而是我會把標準提高，因為我對K佩特連科的標準，會高過V佩特連科，前者我當成歐洲冠軍的標準，後者是國家冠軍的標準，兩者我都可以享受，但要區分。
K佩特連科這個馬勒七，演奏時間只是73分鐘，雖然不算罕見，而現在的馬勒七，平均來說的確比幾十年前快，但這個速度是要頂尖演奏才不致馬虎了事。其實如果我不事先知道這個演奏時間，應該不會為意K佩特連科是快。就以第一樂章為例，弦樂有力、響亮、準繩，要不是樂隊有能力，而且指揮堅持交足貨，是不能既響又準的。性質類似的第五樂章，也奏到相同效果，結尾的高潮非常爆棚。不過在兩個快板，我都認為聲音都是以弦樂壓倒一切。
我覺得最大問題是出在兩個「夜之歌」，即是第二及四樂章，第一樂章那種繃緊狀態，在這兩個閑適樂章沒有得到舒緩，只是一味向前流動，欠缺樂句的修飾。其他指揮多數就是在這兩個樂章比佩特連科慢，但佩特連科這兩個樂章明顯較快，是因為其他指揮不夠厲害嗎？當然不是。
我在現場聽過K佩特連科不下十次，柏林愛樂有，在慕尼黑聽他指揮歌劇都有。我可以用這個錄音為例，舉出我對他一個不滿的地方：聽他頭幾分鐘，已能知道他往後幾十分鐘可以去到哪兒。K佩特連科雖然能將樂隊演奏，帶到一個你想像不到的技術境地，但不能在一個演奏中，帶我去到想像不到的創意境地。
Now here’s another Petrenko, Kirill Petrenko who is now at the helm of the Berlin Phil. Bavarian State Opera finally started its own record label and chose this 2018 performance as the first issue. I guess this recording would please most music lovers and critics but I beg to differ. Not that this one isn’t good but I felt I needed to set a higher standard for Kirill. Though I’ll still enjoy Vasily but he’s on a different league.
Clocking in at 73 minutes, this Mahler 7 was quite brisk though not without precedence. Nowadays conductors tackled this work much faster than in the last century. Yet without knowing this playing time before hand I wouldn’t have noticed Kirill’s quick tempi. This is surely to his credit, without the exceptional playing of the Bavarians and Kirill’s strive for perfection, you’d never get to hear such powerful yet precise strings, most notably in the outer allegros. Still, to me the music was too driven by the strings which were somehow too dominating.
The biggest flaws, in my opinion, were in the two Nachtmusik movements, and those were the movements where Kirill was remarkably quicker than other conductors. The tension of the first movement wasn’t probably relieved during the second movement. I expected more tenderness and phrasings in these two reposeful movements but Kirill seemed to drive on incessantly. Do other conductors take slower tempi because they aren’t skillful enough? Of course not.
I experienced Kirill Petrenko more than ten times in the flesh, with both Berlin Phil and Bavarian State Opera. This recording is yet another example of what Kirill was letting me down on: I’ll know what the end sounds like after just a few minutes. True, he brought orchestral standards to an unexpectedly high level but I couldn’t find much in terms of inspiration.