Octo_Russ

Schubert / Mahler - String Quartet 14 [Mito Chamber Orchestra]

Here's a nice insight into the working mind of Mahler, a String Orchestra arrangement of Schubert's String Quartet 14, which also dresses up the Schubert work in new clothes, it's not merely a quadrupling up of string forces [there's 11 violins, 4 violas, 4 cellos, and 2 double basses], the weight of the piece seems to fall to extra violins, but in balancing things out, Mahler adds two double basses, probably to create a wider dynamic, an even greater variety of colour would have been achieved by bringing in woodwind, brass, and percussion, but this is a fascinating release, though my final verdict is it in no way replaces Schubert's genius, Schubert composed an Octet, and he knew what he was doing, so he easily could have done what Mahler did if he thought it would improve his work.

The Mito Chamber Orchestra is in essence conductorless, organized in 1990, i guess it's rather like the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, this disc was recorded in 1993, this is a Sony Japanese disc, a lot of the writing on the back is in Japanese, and so are most of the notes in the booklet, the front cover is excellent [photo by Makoto Yamazaki], couched in lovely autumnal browns and oranges, a wide angle lens showing the nice architecture of the place, and the starburst lights above.

Again it was the second movement which i found the most interesting, however the overloading of violins has a tendency to sweeten the movement, the work is in D Minor, and in many ways it's a sad and even brutal theme, but that gets blunted somewhat under Mahler's recreation, i couldn't help thinking while i was listening to it, 'give me the Lindsay's anyday', at the start of the theme, there's definitely a lovely lush orchestral texture, and this bides well for the theme as a whole [0:00-2:10], in the First Variation, i love the way the violins swell [2:50-3:08 & 3:29-3:47], the dark Second Variation is abuzz with bubbling undercurrents, bass and treble nicely terraced [4:11-6:34], it's in the louder and menacing Third Variation where i missed the String Quartet, it's my favourite variation, and it just doesn't work as well here [6:35-8:39], the Fifth Variation is really good, there's a mystery at first, which transitions into menace, nicely works for a string orchestra, some very busy string work [10:03-12:49], certainly a work more than worth getting to know in its 'Mahler garb'. 

Here's Georgi Pavliy conducting the second movement on YouTube.