Mahler symphonies on record

One of my suggestions for the not-the-obvious cycle which didn't quite make the final list: the Erwin Stein-arranged chamber version of Symphony 4 from the Manchester Camerata, Douglas Boyd and Kate Royal - Amazon. The necessarily pared down approach gives the work an air of intrigue and intimacy, and a moving fragility. It's wonderfully performed too.

I enjoyed listening to Jurowski’s Resurrection, but thought it perhaps a little too preoccupied with point-making about Mahler’s angularity.

That makes it more surprising that Jurowski cites Michael Gielen as an influence. (Surprising in terms of the finished product rather than in terms of intelligence, as Jurowski is clearly a podium thinker.) For me, Gielen’s SWR Symphony Orchestra cycle is the most obviously recommendable of modern ones. I like it because it’s consistently well played and well recorded, and because all the performances feel so natural. Gielen has a superb grasp of detail, pacing, structure and characterisation, but doesn’t try to score points – the result (to my mind) is that you feel you’re getting the music straight up: nothing less, nothing more. Other cycles may show more sheer temperament (at least half the 1980s DG Bernstein cycle I love for this), others still may be more slickly executed, but none to my mind is as satisfying.

David Hurwitz raves about the Gielen cycle on Classicstoday – and while he can be a cranky and hyperbolic reviewer, here I think he’s pretty much right.

Through the post today has come the new Gielen Das Lied von der Erde, so I’m looking forward to that. Gielen has also recorded the Deryck Cooke edition of the 10th as a supplement to his cycle, and that’s very good too.

I am very very disappointed that there is no Inbal at all.

i think this is strange, because his cycle was the first " life " cycle of the symphonies and critics were very good at the  time.

Also, but this is always the fact, this is a British website so Simon Rattle must be the guy. I have a problem with that.

For Mahler 1, I like what Bruno Walter achieved with the Columbia Symphony in the early 60s.  There is the earlier verison with NYPO, and around that time, a live broadcast of it with the same group - which is worthy of being released.  One problem for me in recordings of Mahler's 1st is the very beginning - the intonation of the 1st violins.  Kind of like the end of Scheherazade - except Mahler has that technical test right up front...

I agree with others in choices of Mahler 2 and 3.  Mahler 4 - in concert I heard it with Eschenbach and Dawn Upshaw with the NSO - I thought some great things were happening in the 3rd movement, which some conductors just seem to rush through to get to the last movement.  Upshaw didn't disappoint when we finally got there.  The same thing was true for Mahler 5th and Eschenbach with the NSO - the adagietto was just superbly and movingly done.  And here's the problem with recordings - only capturing a small fraction of all the great things happening in the world.  Rattle and Berlin may be good, but they are expected to be.

Mahler 6th and 7th - what the Chicago Symphony can do in these works has forever slanted me.  I like the CSO Resound version of Mahler 6 with Haitink - although his speeds in concert seemed to be a bit brisker than on the recording.  What Solti did in the studio with the 7th, is a classic - include Bernstein's 7th with NYPO on DG as well.

I agree with others on Mahler's 8th.  With Mahler's 9th, I still go back to Karajan with the BPO.  I get the sense that this great orchestra is having to work hard to meet his lofty visions - and that nothing they or anyone could do would reach it.  Perhaps this in a way parallels Mahler's own frustrations - life as it could be, and life as it is.

Conductors all have something different to offer this music.  Whether it's Abbado, Norrington, Barenboim, Rattle, Gergiev, Solti, Haitink, Levine, or Muti - one could apply various generalizations to shorten the list - but the real lesson is to understand why each of them are good, and to encourage listeners to try them all.

Making
due allowance for local loyalties, and noting that I’m addressing a community
that appears to be thoroughly Northern Hemisphere-centric, I offer the current
Mahler cycle by the Sydney Symphony, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, which is
being released progressively on CD, on the Sydney Symphony live label. These
are all live performances, of course. They have so far performed the majority
of the symphonies, including No 10 in the Barshai realisation, and the Song of
the Earth, with various other Mahler pieces, and have released on CD Symphonies
1, 5 and 8, the Song of the Earth, the Songs of a Wayfarer and Blumine. By the
end of 2011 the cycle will be complete and released on 12 CDs. Now, whether or
not Ashkenazy can be regarded as a natural Mahlerian, which is, at base, a
deeply subjective assessment anyway, there’s no doubt that the performances and
the CDs released so far offer a powerful combination of excitement, total
professionalism in music-making and a deep understanding of Mahler’s music.
Well worth the investment.

p.s. Things having taken a local turn, and mindful of out-of-the-way cycles, I've always been interested by the Russian (or really I should say Soviet-trained) way with Mahler - a tradition going through, amongst others, Kondrashin (interesting cycle on Melodiya), Gergiev and Jansons. The performing tradition tends to be pretty direct and taut, with relatively little imposition of extra characterisation to 'help' the music along. I wonder why that is? Being used, maybe, to not spotlighting irony? (Mahler via Shostakovich, as it were?)

The Svetlanov cycle from the early 1990s (now on Warner in the Svetlanov edition) recently brightened up a long winter for me. I remember the bells - that must be Russian if nothing else!

No surveys can cover all preferences however it seems odd that the Slatkin, St Louis version (Telarc) of the Mahler 2nd Symphony never gets a mention -- great performance and recording ! Likewise the 3rd with Neumann and Czech Philharmonic (Supraphon) and the 5th with Bernstein and the Vienna Phil. (DG 1988) All these recordings have given great pleasure over many years.