Description

COLORADO MAHLERFEST XXXIV
“The Return” – August 24-28, 2021

DISC I: Philip Sawyers: Symphony No. 5*

1. Moderato 11:50
2. Allegro 5:03
3. Lento 9:32
4. Presto 4:56
5. Allegro 8:27

*World premiere

DISC II: Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5

Part 1
1. Trauermarsch 12:23
2. Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz 14:33

Part 2
3. Scherzo 18:52

Part 3
4. Adagietto 9:06
5. Rondo-Finale 17:03

Kenneth Woods, conductor
Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra

Recorded by Jonathan Galle

Editing and mastering by Tim Burton

RECORDED IN CONCERT AUGUST 28, 2021 | MACKY AUDITORIUM
BOULDER, COLORADO | © 2022 Colorado MahlerFest All Rights Reserved

Please note – for environmental reasons, this item is not shrink-wrapped.

This album is also available as a mp3 and hifi digital download via Bandcamp

 

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“It should be added that the playing of the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra was of a consistently high standard – testifying to the excellence of the individual musicians as, also, their collective responsiveness to Woods’s technical acumen and interpretative insight. Its latter-day status as mainstream repertoire may have obscured its innovative qualities (and drawn attention away from its unevenness), but to hear this work so authoritatively realized and within the context of a major new symphonic statement says much for the continued importance of MahlerFest.”  Richard Whitehouse, Arcana.FM

“Mahler famously said that the symphony “must be like the world” and the “embrace everything,” and that is almost true of just the first movement of the Fifth. It covers a dizzying array of musical topics, from ceremonial march to sentimental dance. It is this variety that makes Mahler’s symphonies such a challenge to a conductor, who has to maneuver an orchestra through all of Mahler’s minefields of shifting tempos and surging emotional fluctuations.

Woods handled this like the veteran Mahlerian he is. There was never a sense of tentativeness about tempo, any hesitation around entrances, or anything less than full commitment to the extremes of emotional expression. Especially impressive was the third movement Scherzo, a tour-de-force of high-paced peasant dances interrupted by a moment of pure schmaltz, and then a grotesque moment of pizzicato strings, each effective in its turn.”  Peter Alexander, Sharps and Flatirons

“The reception for this premiere—really, as well-prepared and finely executed as any composer could wish for—was suitably enthusiastic. (It should be noted that the second half of this concert saw a performance another Fifth Symphony: Mahler’s! This orchestra does not lack stamina! Woods, by the way, is as fine a Mahler conductor as I have had the privilege to hear.) The winds shone in particular in the two scherzi, though had some telling solos elsewhere, such as that for the principal flute towards the close of the Lento. The brass were magisterial throughout the outer and central spans, but the bedrock on which Sawyers constructs his symphonic edifices was provided by the strings, who did not disappoint. I cannot wait for the UK premiere, and the chance to hear this terrific symphony, very possibly Sawyers’ finest, in the flesh.” Guy Rickards, Musical Opinion