Luogo e data di registrazione		Beethovensaal, Liederhalle, Stuttgart (Germania) - 2 luglio 1996
	Registrazione: live / studio		Live recording
	Tonmeister (Aufnahme)		Dietmar Wolf
	Toning (Aufnahme)		Irmgard Bauer
	Digital Remastering		Dietmar Wolf
	Prima Edizione LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		Weitblick | SSS0108-2 | LC 10582 | 2 CDs - 35' 39" & 67' 21" | (c) 2010 | DDD
	Note		-

Giuseppe Sinopoli was a conductor quite versed in Mahler’s music. He left recordings of all the Mahler symphonies made for Deutsche Grammophon (DGG). It is well known that each of these performances is on the highest level. So it is natural that most listeners think these Mahler recordings are the last word of Sinopoli’s interpretation. However, Sinopoli was a conductor who was able to perform like a totally different person in each concert. After his death, many live recordings never introduced were published by people who admire the great achievements of this conductor. An outstanding example is Mahler’ s Symphony No. 9 with the Staatskapelle Dresden, released by the Profil label. The particular point of this Mahler 9 is its total length. In comparison with the DGG issue, Sinopoli selected much slower tempos which made the full piece over 10 minutes longer. And he created terrible sensual excitement, frequently using tempo rubato consciously. In principle Sinopoli was regarded as a scholarly conductor by the audience. In other words, it often considered him a conductor who preferred argumentative performances. I was one of these kinds of audience. But when I attended his concerts, I realized that such easy, simple and superficial characterization was absolutely wrong. On that occasion he conducted Elektra by Richard Strauss, and I was intoxicated with its sound banquet - faint sounds which were barely audible, loudest sounds which astonished the listener, barbarous tone and contrarily fascinating tone. It was really sound magic, like a flood displayed in front of me. This experience let me consider that Sinopoli might be an individual who was dissatisfied if he could not make everything dramatic, although he seemed to like to accomplish analytic and interpretative performances. If it is permissible to say, I felt furthermore it was his intention to create an intense entertainment. The Mahler Symphony No. 3 introduced on this disk is a marvelous performance expressing well the characteristic qualities of Sinopoli, a phenomenal conductor who was not at all easy to understand by ordinary methods. It is important to pay attention to the difference of strings setting between the performance with the Philharmonia (DGG) and this one. In the performance with the Philharmonia, Sinopoli chose the classic stage formation. The first and second violins were set at each side of the stage. The bass strings - cello and contrabass - were at the left. But the modern setting (the bass strings on the right) was used in this performance. Sinopoli declared on every occasion that Mahler’s music should be played with the classic stage formation. He did so in almost all the studio recordings, but did differently in live concert. Is it also a refined contradiction of Sinopoli? It seems he gave priority to the easier performance configuration for the live concert. Sinopoli frequently played with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR). Unfortunately, however, on disk there is only one piece recorded by them in collaboration - Lou Salome composed by Sinopoli himself (DGG). The Mahler performance on this disk can make the listener happier, since the sound created by this orchestra is quite beautiful and full of delicacy. Apparently it is not a performance pushing through everything with power. The music develops, making all the elements of the piece audible. The first movement takes 3 minutes longer than the Philharmonia performance. This may be caused by Sinopoli’s strict instructions not to be hurry and to be patient. But the atmosphere does not become gloomy even with the slow tempo. The air is clear, without stagnation. This slow tempo continues in the second and third movements. The music proceeds as if all the contents need to be clarified. This is not a critical comment. The method is quite useful in order to emphasize Mahler’s paranoiac style. In the fourth movement we are able to fully enjoy the brilliant voice of Waltraud Meier, the best Wagner singer of the day. Sinopoli shows his skill in accompanying her with extremely fine sensibility. Meier has beenreceiving an excellent reputation as a Mahler singer. Since there is no disk of Meier performing this piece, it is a joyful pleasant gift to listen to her singing on this publication. The children’s chorus in the fifth movement sounds heavenly. And the most valuable part of this performance exists in the sixth movement. It takes 3 minutes more, as well, than that of the Philharmonia recording. The music making also becomes more precise, fine and elegant. The delicate sounds brought from the strings tutti are bursting With transparent clarity, and have an overwhelming beauty which cannot exist in the real world. Sumiaki Ohno