Jonathan Nott

Kal

Vladimir Jurowski

Kal, I attended a subscription concert last Winter at Disney Hall. Jonathan Nott was the guest conductor with the LA Philharmonic. He led a performance of the Mahler 4th. It was transcendent. The best Mahler, by far, I have heard in 30 years of seeking out live performances of this composer. The performance seemed transparent to the source, the highest compliment I can think of for a conductor. Everybody in the place was bawling by the 3rd movement, and nobody stopped until the end. It wasn't the sadness of the music, but the perfection of the performance. You only get this in the presence of greatness. I have heard, live and up close, Tilson-Thomas, Ormandy, Szell, Bernstein, Abbado, Rattle, and Boulez over all these years, and they were all superb. But Nott tops them all. It is easy to screw up Mahler, as you know, and maybe even easier to undo the 4th than most of the others, but this performance was as close to perfection as I think it is possible to get. I hear he is working on a Mahler set, although I don't know which orchestra he will record it with. Have you heard anything on this? Cheers, Clifton.

Hi, Clay -- I think JA also mentioned Marin Alsop. This is definitely worth your time. She guest-conducted the Tchaikovsky 5th and the Rodrigo Concerto de Aranjuez at Disney. On the basis of my enjoyment of that performance, I bought her Naxos Brahms CD (SACD/CD), featuring the Brahms 1st Symphony, the "Tragic" Overture, and the "Academic Festival" Overture. War horses, to be sure. But war horses get to be war horses because, over the years, everyone likes to hear them. Snobs denigrate them, but I kind of like them. I think it takes a special conductor to give them new life, and Alsop was very convincing with the Tchaikovsky and the Rodrigo (both are guilty pleasures, on my record shelf, and I have many recordings of each). The Naxos Brahms album is superb. She is an exciting conductor who achieves balance and intensity. So, if you like the Brahms, and you want to hear an exciting up-and-comer, get the Naxos CD (6.110077) -- sonically and musically superb. I hope Kal has heard some news on the Nott Mahler cycle. I can't wait. Cheers, Clifton.

Nott's Mahler is on Tudor (http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/905mitr/index.html) and there's lots of Jurowski out there on Pentatone.

Kal

Thanks, Kal. I'm all over this one.