Kyrill Kondrashin was one of the greatest of Russian conductors, some say the greatest, and in a time when none of his colleagues, save perhaps Koussevitzky in Boston, performed Mahler, he took it upon himself to do so, in the process displaying a remarkable affinity for his music. His set on Lys (now no longer available) featuring the first, third, fourth, fifth and ninth symphonies (the vocal/choral parts in Russian yet!), as well as the live performance of the seventh symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra on Tahra Records bear testimony to this. The Russian performances may have sounded more like Shostakovich than Mahler, especially in the ninth symphony, but this may have had more to do with the sound of the orchestra itself rather than the performance.

This performance of the first symphony in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw from 1981 is a fine tribute to the art of Kyrill Kondrashin. It is also the last time he would ever conduct as he passed away in his hotel room that same evening. Another Mahlerian, Klaus Tennstedt was to have performed the work with the touring NDR Symphony Orchestra, but Kondrashin took over at short notice as Tennstedt was ill. Despite the lack of rehearsal time, the performance is a magnificent one, with every passage guided by the hand of the master, if seemingly improvised at times. Tempi are generally swift but there is no lack of mystery in the first movement, which unfolds with a fine balance of dramatic thrust and poetry. Audience noise and coughing is apparent at the start but quickly reduces as the performance progresses. The NDR Orchestra play with plenty of youthful verve and joyful passion, with a chamber music-like quality that would put many a great orchestra to shame, even if they weren’t technically first-tier. Listen to the way Kondrashin builds the music, establishing his famous fortes in the first climax, and how naturally and lovingly he shapes the themes. Sometimes when I listen to music I get chills from the pleasure, and the performance had me shivering with delight. Youthful music, to be played with youthful abandon, and Kondrashin delivers it in spades.

The rustic Scherzo dances with joy – there’s no other word to describe this. Listen to the way the fiddles dig into their strings – pure fun here, and there’s a very charming, natural ebb and flow to the Trio that is quite irresistible. The intimate details in a Mahler symphony matter as much as the greatest climaxes, and Kondrashin captures the spirit of both ends, and everything else in between.

The funeral march that begins the Frère Jacques movement begins more blasély than most. Scherchen and Mitropoulos (in his Minneapolis Orchestra recording) took the chance to present the grotesquerie in Mahler, Kondrashin (and Michael Gielen, soon to be reviewed on TFI) takes a more straightforward approach, and the music is no poorer for it. The lilt of the music is once again gentle and unforced, a pleasure to listen to, smiling and unsullied. We transit into the music from Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen as though in a dream, and the section is played beautifully, but totally unmaudlin. More sarcasm informs the music after, transformed and disillusioned, and Kondrashin captures this perfectly.

Most impressive, however, is the last movement. Kondrashin negotiates the structure of this unerringly, with no lack of drama. The orchestra plays even more impassionedly than before, raising Heaven and Hell in the opening passages and coming off impressively, the excitement visceral. Kondrashin’s love of the music is palpable, especially in the more lyrical music. In places the playing turns a little scrappy, but this was probably due to exhaustion on the part of the touring orchestra. He takes a longer Luftpaus than normal, so that the key change after is all the more effective. Here is storming, brilliant, eccentric, confident Mahler, in the most inventive, original first symphony that any one would ever write, and Kondrashin knows this.  The coda rings with thunderous authority, the battle well-fought, the victory richly deserved. Marvelous! The applause has been edited out, but I felt like cheering.

A last point - from a technical standpoint, what is amazing, is the amount of attention to detail in the performance, particularly at such short notice – if you hadn’t known that he had taken over at the last minute you might have thought that he had rehearsed for hours and hours with the orchestra – his trademark beauty of sound is apparent and the orchestra play as if they were his own.

For one last evening, Kondrashin had the orchestra in the palm of his hand, inspiring them to greatness. How sad, that he had to leave us so soon, at just sixty-six.

A wonderful performance, not to be missed.

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