Dem tschechischen Dirigenten Rafael Kubelik ist eine der bedeutendsten...

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Meine stille Liebe:
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Rafael Kubelik\'s Mahler cycle (DG, 5/90) was a highlight of his period as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1961-79). It has usually been well received in these pages, although, to some ears, his approach is too lightweight for this repertoire, offering 19th-century drama without 20th-century intensity. Which said, even the sceptics should try these attractive live performances, recorded a decade later than their DG studio equivalents. The scores may not be illuminated with keen strokes of interpretative novelty, but you won\'t find readings of greater warmth, humanity and patient sensitivity. That the pulse has slowed just a little is all to the good, and the more spacious sonic stage preserved by Bavarian Radio bathes the music-making in an appealing glow without serious loss of detail.
Kubelik made one of the earliest studio recordings of the First Symphony, with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca in the 1950s (1/55 - nla), and, on the first appearance of his DG remake in 1968, Deryck Cooke observed that here was an essentially poetic conductor who gets more poetry out of this symphony than any of the other conductors who have recorded it. That is even truer of this 1979 account, Cooke\'s \'natural delicacy \' being the key to an interpretation that may offend latterday purists. Kubelik\'s divided violins may be back in vogue, but not his abandonment of the first movement exposition repeat; he also ignores the single repeat sign in the Landler. Does it matter that the mood seems somehow \'old-fashioned\' as well - more autumnal than spring-like? One can hardly fail to be struck by the rural calm and simplicity he brings to the dreamy opening, the freshness and piquancy of the bucolic details, the birdcalls, the unfussy phrasing.
In the second movement, Kubelik keeps the music moving, as Bernstein almost fails to, yet still manages to impart a decent swing, while his Trio is a delight. Nor does he fall short in the slow movement, giving himself more time than Bernstein to impose a different but equally compelling ethnic slant. Most modern interpretations, however crisply focused, sound painfully flat after this. Only in the finale does the conductor\'s natural expressiveness veer towards a rhythmic slackness that saps the music of the necessary drive. The second subject, however gorgeous, is consolatory rather than rapt or yearning, the total effect something less than sensational.
By contrast, the Fifth is one of those performances that acquires charisma as it goes along. The first two movements are by no means earth-shattering, relying on the resonant recording (not quite as refined as No 1) to add gravitas to some less than committed music-making. The Scherzo is altogether more distinctive, frisky and lithe, with excellent work from the Bavarian horns. As for the Adagietto, this must now take its place among the most affecting on disc. Partisans of extreme tempos, whether fast or slow, may not like it, but Kubelik finds exactly the right pace - which is, of course, the pace that feels right for him; and his strings are possessed of an unearthly radiance. The finale of this symphony almost invariably sounds too heavy. Not so here. The conductor\'s rhythmic verve will surprise anyone familiar with the arthritic flailing of his later years and the conclusion is suitably vigorous.
All in all, a breath of fresh Moravian air and a wonderfully civilised alternative to the hi-tech histrionics of today\'s market leaders. The First Symphony sounds even better and is probably the one to go for.

... A more recent vintage of comparison was provided by two Audite releases of Mahler symphonies featuring the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik. Knowing David Gutman's hard line on Mahler performances. I was delighted to read his closing remarks. 'All in all, a breath of fresh Moravian air ...,' he wrote, '... and a wonderfully civilised alternative to the hi-tech histrionics of today's market leaders.' Too true. 'That the pulse has slowed just a little is all to the good...' says DG and again I'd concur, although the timing difference between the 1967 First Symphony (DG, 5/90) and this 1979 live version is more marked than you might at first expeet. Listening (and looking) reveals 50'0'' for Deutsche Grammophon and 51'33'' for Audite, but the addition of the first-movement repeat in 1968 cuts the DG timing by a further two minutes (at least in theory). The new Fifth is marked by the sort of 'rocketing' dynamic inflexions (notably among the woodwinds) that were typical of Kubelik's Munich heyday. You notice them, especially, at the start of the finale, but the birdsong charaterisations in the first movement of the First
Symphony are hardly less striking. Both Performances are deeply poetic (I second DG's positive response to the Adagietto), less dramatic, perhaps, in orchestral attack than their studio predecessors, but kindlier, softerhued and - in the closing minutes of the Fifth's stormy second movement - markedly more grand. ...

The German firm Audite has given us not only this near complete live cycle of Mahler symphonies (sans 4 or 8), but valuable Kubelik/Curzon readings of four Mozart and two Beethoven concertos. Of particular interest here is 'Das Lied von der Erde', since Kubelik did not record it for DG. Janet Baker fans will welcome a third CD version: and she sounds truly inspired by her conductor. 'Der Einsame im Herbst' may not have the sheer beauty of the version with Haitink but the finale surpasses most on records, with a real sense of the transcendental at the close. Kmentt too makes the most of his words; and the reedy Munich winds suit this score.

Recorded between 1967 and 1971, Kubelik’s DG cycle has been at budget price for some time now and the Audite alternatives of 1, 5 and 7 have been in the shops for months. The NHK-recorded Ninth, made during a 1975 Tokyo visit by the Bavarian RSO, was reviewed in CRC, Spring 2001 (I found the sound unfocused and the brass pinched in sound, but welcomed in particular playing ‘ablaze’ after the visionary episode in the Rondo burleske and a crowning final). No. 1 in DG is widely admired but this 1979 version is more poetic still, wonderfully so in the introduction and trio at (II). There is something of a pall of resonance in place of applause, cut from all these Audite transfers. In No. 7 the balance is more airy than DG’s multi-miked productions, and (as in No. 5) Kubelik sounds less constrained than when working under studio conditions, although rhythm in the opening bars of (II) goes awry and the very opening note is succeeded by a sneeze! The disturbing and more shadowy extremes are more vividly characterized, the finale a riotous display.

Some critics feel that Kubelik gives us ‘Mahler-lite’, which may seem in comparison with, say, Chailly’s Decca cycle or the recent BPO/Abbado Third on DG – not to mention Bernstein’s. But there is plenty of energy here, and the divided strings with basses set to the rear left give openness to textures. However, the strings are not opulent and the trumpets are often piercing. It would be fair to say that Kubelik conducted Mahler as if it were Mozart!

As it happens, in the most controversial of his readings, No. 6, the DG is preferable to the Audite, where Kubelik projects little empathy with its slow movement and where the Scherzo is less cohesive. The real problem is that the very fast speed for (I) affects ail subsequent tempo relationships. Nor does the finale on No. 3, one of the glories of the DG cycle, quite have the same radiance; the singers are the same, the Tölz Boys making a sound one imagines Mahler must have heard in his head, and this performance predates the DG by one month. Nevertheless, these newer issues of Nos 2 and 3 are worth hearing, the ‘Resurrection’ not least for Brigitte Fassbaender’s account of ‘Urlicht’.

Nowadays every orchestra visiting London seems to programme Mahler’s Fifth Symphony as a showpiece, but in 1951 (when Bruno Walter’s 78rpm set was the collector’s only choice) a performance would surely have been uncommon even at the Concertgebouw – Mengelberg was prohibited from conducting in Holland from 1946 until he died that year. Although the start of (V) is marred by horns, this is an interesting, well executed account with a weightier sound, from what one can surmise through the inevitable dimness – the last note of (I) is almost inaudible. The three versions vary sufficiently to quote true timings (none is given by Tahra): (I) 11m 34s/12m 39s/11m 35s (Tahra/Audite/DG); (II) 13m/14m 52s/13m 52s; (III) 15m 56s/17m 54s/17m 23s; (IV) 9m 24s/10m 24s/9mm 44s); (V) 14m 26s/14m 57s/15m 29s. The live Munich version is tidier than on DG; the spectral imagery in (III) is heavier in effect, too; and in the Adagietto the dynamic and phrasing shadings and poetic quality of the string playing also give the live performance the edge. Towards the end of the finale, and elsewhere, the engineers reduced dynamic levels.

Tahra’s booklet comprises an untidily set-out synopsis of Kubelik’s career. Audite’s have full descriptions of the works with text for Nos 2 and 3, and different back-cover colour portraits of the conductor.

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Erstes auffallendes Merkmal dieser Live-Aufnahme der erratischen 7. Symphonie Gustav Mahlers ist die Schnelligkeit, mit der Kubelik die Ecksätze nimmt. Der erste Satz bekommt so eine wirklich ungewohnte Frische. Die erste Nachtmusik wird bei Kubelik zur Tagesmusik oder zumindest zu einer Nachtmusik mit Tagesgedanken. Trotz seiner Brüche bleibt der Satz ungemein positiv und von fast rustikaler Bonhomie. Das Scherzo kommt dann um so fratzenhafter daher, als trunkene Musik mit fast dämonischem Einschlag. Das 'Andante Amoroso', die zweite der beiden Nachtmusiken dieser Syrnphonie, findet kaum zum wirklichen 'Amoroso', kaum zur Ruhe, sondern erschöpft sich in einem Kampf zwischen Ruhe und Nervosität und führt so zu einem fast hemdsärmelig legeren, spontanen und direkten Finalsatz.