WOW! SF Symphony Final Mahler Recording: Pics and Views

[Woochifer]

THIS IS THE FIRST POST!

For a few years now, I've highly recommended the San Francisco Symphony's Mahler series for every possible reason -- the stellar performances, the great music itself, the incredible recording quality, AND the 5.1 multichannel SACD audio. These are not only great performances, but state-of-the-art reference recordings that were originally done in DSD. Debuting with their stunning Grammy-award winning performance of Mahler's 6th (the Tragic symphony) that they recorded the day after 9/11, the SFS Mahler series now has a total of 9 releases, all of them on CD/SACD hybrid discs.

The last remaining Mahler piece was the massive 8th Symphony (the Symphony of a Thousand). They recorded it in a series of concerts a couple of weeks ago, and I attended the final performance on the 23rd. The CD/SACD will come out sometime next year.

I saw the SFS perform the same piece a couple of years ago, and while it was an inspiring performance, it did not measure up to some of the better recordings of Mahler's 8th. The SFS also seemed to have a sense that they weren't ready just yet, since those concerts were not recorded and they had just done two other Mahler recordings earlier that season.

Well, if the performance I saw last Sunday was any indication of what got captured on tape, next year's Mahler release will be my new reference recording. The concert was a big step above what I saw a couple of years ago (seats in the 11th row probably helped as well), and the SFS and chorus gave a monumental performance that very well might go down as one of the landmark recordings of that piece. Yes, it was THAT GOOD!

Since this was the SFS' final Mahler performance, I brought my digital camera with me to snap a few shots of the hall and the recording rig. Because I sat closer to the stage this time than when I saw the recording session for Mahler's 5th, I was surprised by a few things that I saw more clearly this time around.

First off, I never realized how many mics they use -- apparently the stage and chorus had a total of 50 microphones! Most of them are very well hidden, so I had previously assumed that they did not use any close up miking and all of the mics were mounted on the overhead rig. Not the case at all. Here, you can see the stage before most of the musicians and chorus arrived. The mics all got patched into hub on the right side of the stage.

Click here for a larger image



Here's a shot of the acoustic panel rig that Davies Symphony Hall uses over the stage. Before these got installed during an acoustical renovation in the early-90s, the floor seats had major dead spots. Even now though, Davies Hall does not have the best acoustics. It's a hard sound coming off the stage, and the 5.1 SACD tracks on the SFS Mahler recordings very accurately capture this, warts and all.



Moments before showtime, you can see the full orchestra along with the four choruses in place. Mahler's 8th is one of the most demanding pieces ever written with multiple sections for most of the instruments plus eight vocal soloists and an extra horn section out in the audience. Full orchestration requires at least 800 people. This was a pared down arrangement, but still required about 400 performers. An unusual change that probably helped this concert sound so much better than the last time was separating the first violins (left side of the stage) from the violas and other violin sections (right side). I read that it made the performance more demanding, but it was a needed change to sound right.



More shots around Davies Hall ...

A ceiling shot that shows the children's chorus, the loge seats, and the overhead mic used to capture the crowd/hall ambience.



This shot shows the Davies Hall pipe organ and the acoustical canopy.