The Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez - Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (1996)

The Symphony No. 7, nicknamed "The Song of the Night," is widely regarded as the most enigmatic of Mahler's cycle and the most difficult to coherently interpret as a symphonic structure, even by this composer's extraordinary standards. The movements are undeniably Mahlerian in their abrupt mood swings and ironic twists, and each offers a wealth of fantastic ideas and brilliant orchestration -- arguably the most innovative sounds in all of Mahler's works. Yet the movements seem ill fitted when taken together and leave an impression that this symphony is, in a sense, a series of disparate tone poems that were arbitrarily patched together. Faced with the incongruities of this disjointed work, Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra opt for the safest course by playing the music accurately and cleanly, but they take few risks with the material. In the Langsam -- Allegro con fuoco, Boulez's cautious approach seems too much like trepidation, and the movement's energy is dissipated by his obsessive accounting for every dotted rhythm. The two Nachtmusik movements and the Scherzo work better, perhaps because their peculiarities provide interest even when their symphonic purpose is unclear. The Rondo-Finale is perhaps the only success here, but it comes too late to redeem the desultory results of the four previous movements.