Resurrected

Mahler's Symphony No 2, Resurrection, another massive work sprawling over two disks and played on this recording by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Simon Rattle with chorus master Simon Halsey and soloists soprano Arleen Auger and mezzo Dame Janet Baker. The crude outline of the symphony ( variously confirmed and repudiated by Mahler ) is that the first movement represents the death of the hero, with second movement a nostalgic rememberance of his life, followed by a third in which he despairs of his belief in God. Mahler then sets the song Urlicht from his recurring obsession the Wunderhorn poems, and this rediscovers a naive faith which reaches apotheosis in the resurrection text of the finale. This final text, sung by the chorus and soprano, begins with lines from Klopstock but is completed by lines written by Mahler himself. Urlicht it sung by the mezzo or contralto soloist, a rather hooty operatic performance here by Janet Baker of the kind that I find it hard to warm too. Otherwise, the forces here play and sing with committment, if in slightly dated sound. perhaps more than any other composer, Mahler's symphonies contain a consistency of the same themes and concerns and mark a definite progression, though without marking any great musical advance from first to last.