When A Fifth Is A First

Symphony No 5 was the first Mahler symphony that I bought on this recording by the Berliner Philharmoniker with Herbert von Karajan. This 1973 recording was also Karajan's first ever Mahler recording, apparently left until late in his career because of the amount of preparation required. Commercial reasons could have been in evidence too, since the current massive popularity of the composer is a relatively recent thing. Some might say that Mahler was also not sufficiently teutonic but that would be taking conspiracy theory a bit far and Karajan did subsequently record much Mahler. The performance on this symphony is perfectly adequate, although slightly dated by modern performance standards. The adagietto ( famously used in the film Death In Venice and the closest Mahler ever comes to Classic FM friendly territory ) drags somewhat here but elsewhere there is much to admire. The symphony itself is another of Mahler's angst ridden works with every silver lining threatened by another approaching cloud, a world view that in retrospect fits perfectly with Mahler's age and resonates through most of the ages that followed too.