Mahler's Symphony No. 7 is the most troublesome and possibly the least popular of the composer's nine (or ten). Clocking in at well over an hour, drifting in and out of various tonal realms, and ending with a strangely sunny C major, the work has three central movements that some have felt to be incoherent. However, conductor Kirill Petrenko, leading the Bayerisches Staatsorchester (the orchestral incarnation of the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra), has it all under control. It's not so much that Petrenko does anything ...
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Mahler's Symphony No. 7 is the most troublesome and possibly the least popular of the composer's nine (or ten). Clocking in at well over an hour, drifting in and out of various tonal realms, and ending with a strangely sunny C major, the work has three central movements that some have felt to be incoherent. However, conductor Kirill Petrenko, leading the Bayerisches Staatsorchester (the orchestral incarnation of the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra), has it all under control. It's not so much that Petrenko does anything revolutionary, although his finale, at 16:18, is unusually quick (compare to 18:42 for Bernard Haitink). It's that he has a concept for each movement and molds the orchestra to it unusually effectively. In his reading, the two "Nachtmusik" movements frame the Scherzo, which takes up the disquieting and often dissonant sound of the opening movement; although longer than the Scherzo, the nocturnes are, in Petrenko's hand, interludes in a drama that is resolved only with the finale. Despite...
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