Benjamin Zander - Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (2001)

There are folks out there who loathe Benjamin Zander's conducting. Some find him an amateur with limited technique. Some find him an eccentric with odd interpretations. Some find him purposefully willful with weird colors, strange balances, and a peculiar sense of tempo. That's fine. There's plenty of room in the world for differences in opinion. And maybe sometimes they're even right. Maybe Zander's Le Sacra du printemps is weirdly colored and strangely balanced. Maybe Zander's effort on Beethoven's Fifth is too fast and too harsh. Maybe Zander's conducting of Mahler's Sixth, with all its tremendous demands, is too much and his interpretation too light for the abysmal depths of the work. But surely no one could object to Zander's 2000 recording of Mahler's Fourth with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Surely everyone can embrace this wonderfully detailed but marvelously graceful performance, which fulfills every direction in Mahler's score with attention and affection. Surely everyone can extol Zander's command of form in the opening movement and his control of the tempo in the slow movement. Surely everyone can exalt at the climax of Zander's slow movement when the gates of paradise open and, except for the slightly shrill tone of soprano Camilla Tilling, surely everyone can ascend into the heaven of his serene finale. And if they can't, it's their loss. Telarc's sound is magnificently round, reverberant, and just about real.