“..For Bychkov the symphony shows the life cycle in all its struggles, suffering, joy, irony, humour, love and doubt.”
Mahler Symphony No. 2 performed by maestro Semyon Bychkov and Czech Philharmonic, received an outstanding review and it is selected as Record of the Week by BBC Record Review.
“I know Gustav Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony isn’t explicitly an Easter piece but it deals with themes of redemption and resurrection, and this brand new recording arrived just this week – too good an opportunity to miss. It is the 3rd in Semyon Bychkov’s Mahler series with the Czech Philharmonic. If you have the 4th or 5th symphonies you will know what to expect. The finally tuned relationship with the players who seem to be able to produce anything he asks of them and in the Resurrection Symphony, the sense of a struggle with fate and death is palpable – and for Bychkov the symphony shows the life cycle in all its struggles, suffering, joy, irony, humour, love and doubt. We feel it all in the 3rd movement before the arrival of Urlicht, the primal light that longs for relief from earthly works.
Urlicht – Primal Light leading us to the rebirth in the finale of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 2 in the brand new recording from the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov. Well chosen voices, mezzo soprano Elisabeth Kulman isn’t too reassuring in Urlicht, there is still doubt and heart rendering sadness to overcome but there is hope….and what an oboe solo to underpin it. Soprano Christiane Karg and the Prague Philharmonic Choir rise splendidly to the final climax as well. Fabulous solos, sensuous slides from the strings, beautifully managed changes of tempo from the opening funeral march and the warmth of the orchestral sound is so well framed by the recording. It is a magnificent Mahler 2 and it has just arrived on the Pentatone label and it is my Record of the Week.“
Andrew McGregor
LISTEN the full episode HERE.
