Mahler - Symphony nr. 7

I have been unable to get this music out of my head for the last couple of days. I had planned to shift sooner out of the Mahler register, back to Bartok, but the Seventh (all movements apart from the finale) has been swirling around so obsessively in my head that I feel compelled to come back to it once more. Luckily there is no dearth of Sevenths in my collection ... ;-)

I listened to Gielen's version of the first movement which surges splendidly ahead, like a knight in shining armour. Not quite the swashbuckling Solti, although timings are very similar (21'53" vs 21'35"). But despite the impressive sense of direction conjured by Gielen he is able to hold on to some of the mystery too. I love the introduction where he plays the string notes that accompany the tenor horn as semiquavers, not tremolando as almost everyone else does (Sinopoli does the semiquavers too; this is about the stroke of the oars and the droplets falling into the water when Mahler made that trip in a rowing boat across the Wörthersee, early July 1905: In Krumpendorf erwartete mich Alma nicht, weil ich meine Ankunft nicht angezeigt hatte. Ich stieg in das Boot, um mich hinüberfahren zu lassen. Beim ersten Ruderschlag fiel mir das Thema (oder vielmehr der Rhythmus und die Art) der Einleitung zum I. Satz ein - und in etwa 4 Wochen waren der 1., 3. und 5. Satz fix und fertig! Ich schrieb alles in einem Furor nieder.). The central section gets plenty of time to breath. Its lyrical climax is impressively shaped.  But in the recapitulation the juggernaut gathers impressive momentum again. However, it never sounds breathless. In Gielen's hands this Allegro risoluto appears as one of the most accomplished symphonic movements ever written, which it undoubtedly is! Interestingly, whilst for me the Seventh connects most obviously back to the Third (with that meandering, cavernous opening movement), the way Gielen plays it here alerts us to its kinship with the more classically poised, muscular Sixth! I hope to be able to listen to his rendering of the whole symphony as soon as I'm back from a short trip to London.