There are performances that impress, and there are performances that etch themselves indelibly in the memory. This live recording of Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony (1860-1911) with Bernard Haitink, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Juliane Banse undoubtedly belongs to the latter category. What was captured in November 2005 in the Philharmonie im Gasteig and is now being released separately on cd by BR-Klassik, is an inimitable, deeply moving and unparalleled interpretation that grips the listener from the first to the last note. The recording was previously part of the eleven-cd box Bernard Haitink Portrait Vol. 1, which BR-Klassik released in 2019 on the occasion of Haitink's ninetieth birthday – a tribute to a collaboration with the BRSO that dates back to 1958. Now that Haitink is no longer with us, this separate release takes on an additional emotional significance: it not only documents a magnificent performance, but also a unique artistic collaboration that has become part of the past forever.
Haitink once again confirms why he is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest Mahler conductors in music history. His approach breathes a natural wisdom and a rare natural authority. No striving for effect, no exaggerated sentimentality, but an infallible sense of the work's architecture. Precisely because Haitink does not emphasize anything and lets the music speak completely for itself, the emotional impact is all the greater. Every tempo is precisely chosen, every transition sounds organic and inevitable. With a total playing time of nearly 57 minutes, and an Adagio that takes up well over twenty minutes, Haitink consciously opts for a spacious, contemplative tempo – without ever getting bogged down. He takes the time where the music needs it, and in doing so makes it clear that slowness and tension need not exclude each other. Thus Haitink lays bare all the layers of this symphony. At first hearing it sounds transparent and idyllic, but in reality – Mahler knew this only too well – it is permeated with irony and a humor that not everyone immediately recognizes. Already in the opening section, Haitink unerringly senses how Mahler plays with an old classical procedure that Haydn and Beethoven also liked to employ. Just before the end of the first movement, the famous slowing of the main theme receives exactly the right dosage: subtly ironic, but never emphatic or caricatural. The playful irony, the underlying threat, the childlike innocence and existential melancholy all receive their full place in an interpretation that cuts deep. Nowhere is the listener guided; everything seems to unfold with an almost self-evident logic. Precisely therein lies Haitink's true mastery.
The Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks proves to be a more than congenial partner. The transparency of the woodwinds in the opening measures, the phenomenal solo violin in the grotesque scherzo – where Death, as Mahler himself described it, plays "crying and raw" as if on an out-of-tune fiddle –, the velvety warmth of the strings in the heavenly Adagio and the exemplary balance between all orchestral groups testify to an orchestra making music at the absolute world level. The dynamic build-up is exemplary: from the most fragile pianissimi to the majestic climaxes, the orchestra maintains admirable control, without ever losing emotional intensity. Especially the ending of the third movement belongs to the most impressive ever recorded on cd: a moment of almost unearthly beauty in which time and space seem to stand still, and in which the gate to heaven that is sung of in the finale seems to open as it were. Rarely does the hushed ecstasy of this Adagio sound so natural and at the same time so moving.
The orchestra also proves its exceptional class in the finale. The accompaniment breathes, colors and continually supports the vocal line without ever imposing itself. Every instrumental contribution seems to fall precisely into place, allowing Mahler's wondrous sound world – that idiosyncratic blend of heavenly innocence and earthly transience from Das himmlische Leben – to unfold in all its richness.
Juliane Banse completes this dream team with a compelling interpretation of this finale. Her bright soprano possesses precisely the right mixture of innocence, warmth and expressivity. Her diction is exemplary, making every textual nuance intelligible, but above all she lives her text. She tells, paints and moves, without ever overacting – and thus gives precisely that dual perspective that is peculiar to this "child in heaven": naive on the surface, deeply felt at the core. Banse does not simply sing of heavenly life; she makes the listener actually believe in it. Her natural musicality makes this finale a moving culmination of an exceptional performance.
That this masterful live performance is now available separately on cd can without exaggeration be called a gift for every music lover. This is Mahler of the highest level: deeply felt, technically unsurpassed and musically perfectly balanced. A performance that not only commands admiration, but also leaves the listener in silence long after it ends. Essential for every Mahler lover, and without doubt a performance that easily ranks alongside the greatest interpretations of Mahler's Fourth on cd.