Mahler's Symphony No 3
Bernstein's first and still finest Mahler Third
The Gramophone Choice
Coupled with Four Rückert-Lieder*. Kindertotenlieder*
*Jennie Tourel sop Martha Lipton mez
Women’s Chorus of the Schola Cantorum; Boys’ Choir of the Transfiguration; New York Philharmonic Orchestra / Leonard Bernstein
Sony Classical SM2K61831 (142‘ · ADD). Recorded 1962. Buy from Amazon
Few who experienced Bernstein’s passionate advocacy of Mahler’s musical cause in the 1960s were left untouched by it. These recordings date from those years and the flame of inspiration still burns brightly about them almost 40 years later. The CBS recordings were clearly manipulated, but the sound – at best, big and open but trenchant and analytically clear – suited Mahler’s sound world especially well. Bernstein’s account of the Third Symphony is as compelling an experience and as desirable a general recommendation now as when it first appeared. The New Yorkers are on scintillating form under the conductor they have most obviously revered in the post-war period. This is a classic account, by any standards. The set is completed by fine recordings of the Kindertotenlieder and the Rückert-Lieder with Bernstein favourite Jennie Tourel.
Additional Recommendation
Coupled with Kindertotenlieder*
Kathleen Ferrier contr
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult;
*Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam / Otto Klemperer
Testament mono SBT2 1422 (131’ · ADD). Includes interview with Kathleen Ferrier. Recorded November 29, 1947, *July 12, 1951. Buy from Presto Classical
It is difficult, even now, not to be awestruck by the professionalism and unassuming good sense of Sir Adrian Boult. In the winter of 1947‑48, the BBC Third Programme took the daring and controversial decision to broadcast the complete Mahler symphonies and Nos 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8 were prepared and conducted by Boult.
His performance of the Third Symphony, a UK premiere, is lucid and unaffected. It is also exceptionally well shaped orchestrally, no mean achievement with a work the players had never seen before. The playing isn’t flawless. Post-war raids on London’s pool of orchestral players by Beecham and Legge had robbed the BBC SO of some of its former lustre. Passengers are clearly being carried in the horn and trombone sections, yet such is Boult’s professionalism that the wider picture is largely unaffected.
The BBC saved none of the performances. This off-air recording was preserved on a set of acetate discs which Jon Tolansky discovered in a shop in Manchester in 1981. Kathleen Ferrier’s presence made the find doubly important. She gives an exceptionally beautiful performance of ‘O Mensch!’, lovingly accompanied by Boult. What’s more, transfer engineer Paul Bailey has done a remarkable job tidying up a patch of badly disintegrating sound near the end of ‘O Mensch!’.
Added to the Mahler Third are a noisily recorded live 1951 Amsterdam Kindertotenlieder drily conducted by Klemperer, whom Ferrier disliked, and an interview she gave to CBC in 1950. Hearing Ferrier speak is interesting. Dark-voiced, careful of accent and not afraid to correct her less than adequate interviewer, she sounds not unlike Margaret Thatcher after her voice had been lowered.
