A Festival Fifth From the Mountains

Mahler: Symphony No. 5

Grand Teton Festival Orchestra/Sir Donald Runnicles

Reference FR-763

Total Time:  72:57

Recording:   ****/****

Performance: ****/****

Back in 1962, the first music festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, began what has become the Grand Teton Festival.  Musicians from across North America and Europe are invited each year to this gorgeous location to make great music together.  They come from 84 different orchestras and 72 educational institutions each summer inspiring the local community with a variety of orchestral, chamber, and solo performances.  This summer the 8-week festival celebrates its 65^th Season.  Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles returns to lead the orchestra.  Runnicles was also on the podium for this recording of the Mahler Fifth Symphony (1901-02).  The recording was made from the July 2024 live concert captures and is the second release from the festival on Reference Recordings. 

From the opening trumpet we have a sense that something special is about to occur.  The opening theme has a warm quality that also feels a bit sentimental with excellent attention to the little sweeps and accents.  The folkish quality comes through well with an occasional bittersweetness that works very well.  It bodes well for what is about to follow as we move through that trumpet call that shifts us to the pathos and impassioned second idea.  The second movement also has crisp articulation that is helped by what seems like a drier acoustic hall and the brass balance also falls nicely across the sound picture.  The lilt of the landler in the scherzo also is rather delightful as the movement begins.  Delightful wind colors also really pop as well.  As the ideas move across the orchestra, we get to actually hear that shift in the sound picture which is picked up well.  The solo work throughout is gorgeously captured.

Reference is quite good at finding a balance between a live recording and a studio session.  There is a bit of warmth here in the sound but still a crystal clarity of the balance across the orchestra.  The percussion manages to waft across the large textures without completely overwhelming things.  Something else that is a bit more palpable is a sort of excitement and joy from the players coming together to celebrate great music making (most audible in the landler of the scherzo).  The sheer joy of musicmaking is present in a way that lifts the performance from another reading where the notes are all there but the overall soulless nature diminished the result.  That is not the case here as one is enraptured from the very start and one gets the sense everyone is aware how special this performance will be before it even was to start.  Detailed recording and miking information is also included to reveal some of the process for making this sound superb.

There are a lot of great performances of this work, and no doubt people will have their personal favorites.  For me it has always been James Levine’s RCA recording with Philadelphia, and Bernstein’s first recording with the NY Philharmonic (Sony).  Inbal (Denon) and Abbado’s Berlin (DG) may be another close recommendation.  However, this release certainly has its merits that center around a moving interpretation that sort of goes down the middle without being too extreme.  The first two movements are a little more relaxed, while the “Adagietto” clocks in a little quicker at around 10 minutes (not as breezy as Abbado’s Berlin Philharmonic reading).  It is still beautifully shaped with the harp’s color nicely captured in the warm string sound that is not overly treacly. The scherzo hits its stride well.  The finale also feels like it needs to move just a bit more, but it works within Runnicles’ vision of the score.  One gets a clear sense of the structural aspects of these movements a little bestter which guide the listener well to make a case for this piece as a hole.      

Like other Reference Recordings it comes as a hybrid SACD 5.1 surround stereo release.  Another well-engineered and recorded album to add to the many the label has released over the years.  The cover art is equally stunning and the booklet features good notes about the work.  Each release is a reminder of the great musicmaking that happens in our regional orchestras and festivals.  Whether you feel you need another Mahler 5, this is certainly one that will bring great pleasure and may entice you to travel to Wyoming some summer to experience what the festival has to offer!  The sound alone may be a good reason to make this a part of one’s collection.