Reviewed by Dave Massey

Death and resurrection is not an easy subject to tackle as a whole in any manner - musically speaking you are left with the problem - how to bridge the gap between two totally opposing points, between hopelessness and hope, between the depths of despair and the heights of hope. Mahler's unifying factor is a man - a hero figure the subject of both major themes. The opening movement (Allegro Maestoso) closes with a descent into the depths of despair punctuated at the last moment by a major chord - a glimmer of hope. After this point Mahler envisaged a 5 minute silence before the next movement! Simon Rattle knows how to bring the best in his musicians with the ominous bass motif that keeps you looking over your moulder in the first movement(!) and the quiet, faint memories that appear in the strings, and a beautiful descending chromatic scale halfway through that disappears into nothingness. I don't think it's purely out of geographical bias (coming from Brum) that rate Simon Rattle and the CBSO as one of the world's greatest orchestras - they are, and they now have a concert hall that is a world beater too! But I digress... There are reminders in the IVth movement "Urlicht" ("Primaeval Light") of the troubles that went before and the hope yet to come and the human voice is brought in at this point (on this recording Dame Janet Baker, Mezzo, and Arleen Anger, soprano) with a beautiful song about finding a way back to God and his leading light. The work as a whole is well interpreted by Simon Rattle - the underlying restlessness - turning into a realisation of hope and future comes through wonderfully.

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