Mahler - Symphony No 5

The Guardian 80

Gürzenich Orchestra Köln/Roth
(Harmonia Mundi)

In October 1904 Mahler conducted the Gürzenich Orchestra Köln in the premiere of his own Symphony No 5. So, 113 years later, it’s a loaded piece for the orchestra to record with its newish music director François-Xavier Roth. The result is an exciting and fresh-sounding performance, played on modern instruments but with a raw energy that Roth has brought from his work with his own period-instrument group, Les Siècles. Thanks to the transparency of sound they achieve we get to hear lots of usually hidden detail, and the players relish it; they especially seem to be enjoying the upward surges and precipitous falls of the turbulent second movement, and there are some glorious glissandi from the strings. Is there a sense that the ebullience is making up for a slight lack of gravitas in Roth’s interpretation? Perhaps, but the joyous closing moments of the finale are enough to silence such thoughts.