In his intriguing notes for Abbado's new set, Donald Mitchell rates the Second highly, presenting it as the one work of Mahler's ''which offers a compendium of virtually everything that is most characteristic of the composer, a portfolio, so to speak, of all his essential features''. No doubt this is meant to be provocative, but there is some truth in it and, as has often been suggested in these pages, a live performance should have a headstart in tapping the vital component of spiritual uplift. If Bernstein's 'live' performances have the emotional clout to transform lives, Abbado contents himself with the more modest, arguably more pertinent aim of presenting the score directly with the maximum clarity and precision. In this he is assisted by playing of astounding accuracy and beauty of tone, captured in a recording of (impractically?) wide dynamic range and exquisite detail. Rattle's more radical rethink is not on the agenda; neither is his slow and deliberate treatment of the curious staccato nose-dive at the end of the first movement. Abbado's analogue studio recording (DG, 6/77—nla) was often more daringly original, more thrustful and angular than this one.
Accordingly it comes as no surprise to find the funeral march relatively contained, the quiet passages seemingly more atmospheric than before (with a brief moment of technical instability at track 4, 1'19''). The deft, restrained manner works well enough in the inner movements, especially the Andante moderato where Bernstein's slowness is nothing if not immoderate. Abbado launches into the third movement Scherzo with the audience still restive (elsewhere they are pleasingly inaudible); there follows charm but perhaps insufficient sense of threat. The ''Urlicht'' is again on the cool side, though Waltraud Meier, beautifully controlling her legato while conscientiously projecting to a real public in a large hall, is suddenly impassioned at ''Ich bin von Gott''. The massive finale, conceived here on the very grandest scale, goes well but not quite well enough: the choir is backwardly balanced and does not efface memories of the Philharmonia Chorus for Klemperer or the City of Birmingham chorus for Rattle. More seriously, there are several agogic touches which impede the natural flow. Sample from just before the broad climactic passage which abruptly changes tack at track 8, 1'22'' and, for once, the reading doesn't seem properly considered. The sound can be uncomfortably analytical too: in the closing bars the searing X-ray focus puts the bells upfront yet still leaves tam-tams sounding like tea-trays. On the other hand, Cheryl Studer makes her usual lovely sound and I wouldn't want to overstate the lack of vision.
If, like Michael Kennedy, you feel that the first movement needs to balance the finale ''both structurally and emotionally'', there are several conductors who make a stronger case (though Klemperer is not among them). As a document of a great occasion, the Abbado set stands up very well indeed. Incidentally, my review copy had a tiny fault on disc two (track 13, 1'48'')—in point of fact it sounded suspiciously like an edit!'