Mahler symphonies on record
Mon, May 23 2011, 11:08PM
#2
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
No mention of the much admired Bertini cycle.
I wonder why.
Here's one that stands alone: Hans Swarowsky in the 5th, I forget the orchestra-probably some 2nd rate band like the VSO, that I heard, courtesy of Rob Cowan, on Classical Collection some years back.
It struck me as quite raw and exciting.
Tue, May 24 2011, 6:41PM
#3
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
I have that Swarowsky mahler 5 - it came on a 75th(?) anniversary album for the VSO coupled with a bruckner 4 and Schubert 9.
The Mahler comes in as one of the slowest performances I have (78'), but is rather splendid and exciting.
P
Wed, May 25 2011, 3:52AM
#4
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
I am constantly amazed at record reviewers and their collective amnesia when selecting so-called great performances. There are many omissions in Mr Jolly's list and personal taste is, as always, just that.
However some blinding omissions stand out for me.
1. Guilini and Chicago in the First on EMI. Grand, elegant with great pace and gloriously played.
2. Klemperer in the "Resurrection" is almost a criminal omission. Few performances have moved me like this one. The chorus and the orchestra, the great Philharmonia of its day, is sublime.
3. The George Szell Fourth on Sony is the most perfect interpretation and has playing of almost superhuman quality. Well recorded too.
4. Solti in the Eighth was a pioneering recording made in Vienna with a sublime group of soloists and the Chicago Symphony at full tilt. It's still the best and clearest sound I've ever heard in this problematic work to record.
5. Bernstein with the NYPO on Sony in the Seventh. Stands head and shoulders above most versions you list.
While these comments are my own, the recordings I mention have been highly praised in music journals around the world for many years.
Like all music reviewing today one feels that their is an obligation to mention certain conductors because of pressure from agents and record companies.
Let's get back to the music.
John Grant
Wed, May 25 2011, 6:50PM
#5
RE: Notable Mahler
To my ears, Bernstein's 70's live cycle with the VPO remains unsurpassed, except for the 9th Symphony, in which there's an even more impressive performance by... himself ! His 1979 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic - Bernstein's only registered collaboration with that orchestra, if I'm not mistaken - has everything: pathos, drama, scale, breadth and a tremendous sense of occasion, in addition to boasting first-class sound for an analog tape.
Another great Mahler is Bernard Haitink's 3rd Symphony from his cycle with the (now Royal) Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, convincing from beginning to end and without a single dull moment.
Zubin Mehta's rendition of the 5th Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic is a curious one: the performance is brisker than most, the music is constantly pushed forward, but it somehow fails to ignite.
Wed, May 25 2011, 6:03PM
#6
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
Either Bernstein cycle for a time-tested, thoroughly thought-through view of Mahler (perhaps the later VPO recordings by a hair, for their better sound). Chailly for an amazing, ground-up rethinking of the composer. The first cycle I've heard for 40 years that breaks from tradition without sounding quirky.
Sat, Jun 4 2011, 12:00PM
#7
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
This recording is by far one of my favorite recordings of the 4th. Of course, this must be nuanced by the fact that the only other one I have is one by Salonen conducting the LA Phil. I should add that it has become one of my favorite Mahler symphonies since I discovered this "pared down" version.
Sat, Jun 4 2011, 10:55PM
#8
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
I've just ordered Adler's pioneering recording of the 3rd. Something I had been meaning to do for some time.
Did I read somewhere that Adler was British?
Sun, Jun 5 2011, 2:27AM
#9
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
I heard Klemperer do the second live and immediately bought his recording. To me it has never been superseded.
Sun, Jun 5 2011, 2:30AM
#10
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
Nothing about Boulez? Surely his Sixth and Third deserve a mention - not forgetting his very refreshing Ninth.
Tue, Jun 7 2011, 2:14PM
#11
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
I have the Boulez 3rd. Somehow, I can't quite warm up to it. I prefer the Salonen-LA Phil rendition.
Tue, Jun 7 2011, 2:17PM
#12
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
Are you talking about the Klemperer 2nd on EMI. I like this rendition. It's one of my favorites. It's still far and away my favorite one on disc.
Tue, Jun 7 2011, 6:48PM
#13
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
The Haitink cycle, still after all those years, the most precise, absolutely every detail can be heard. And he is not a cool Dutchman, no way, but what is very important in the sometimes chaotic 6th, 7th and even 9th symphony, he controls the chaos. And that is what a great conductor does! Maybe Bernstein and Solti are more exciting in the 8th, but as an overall cycle i recommand this one
Tue, Jun 7 2011, 7:43PM
#14
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
I've just ordered Adler's pioneering recording of the 3rd. Something I had been meaning to do for some time.
Did I read somewhere that Adler was British?
Adler was born in London and died in Vienna. See wikipedia.org for a short bio. He studied with Mahler and was chorus master for the premiere of Mahler's 8th. There are available, by the way, two different performances with the same forces of the Mahler 3rd. The first is the one now on Music & Arts (originally on SPA lps). The other, recorded by the Austrian Radio on April 20, 1952, is on Tahra. What is interesting is that Adler does the final movement five minutes faster in the Tahra (21'50 vs 26'03). I prefer the slower version which is the one you are getting.
Sat, Jun 25 2011, 11:08PM
#15
RE: Mahler symphonies on record
A relatively 'classical' Mahler cycle:
No 1 - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Jansons (RCO Live)
No 2 - Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer (Channel Classics)
No 3 - Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Zinman (RCA)
No 4 - London Philharmonic Orchestra, Horenstein (EMI)
No 5 - Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Neumann (Brilliant Classics)
No 6 - Cleveland Orchestra, Szell (Sony Classical)
No 7 - Southwest German RSO, Gielen (Haennsler)
No 8 - Bavarian RSO, Kubelik (Audite)
No 9 - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chailly (Decca)
No 10 - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernstein (DG)
For myself, a lifelong Mahler obsessive it is fairly simple to compile a cycle of close to perfect performances: every symphony that Abbado has done with the LFO has moved me and intrigued me more than any other previous recording. The refinement of texture, the fidelity to the notated tempi and fluctuations of dynamics and intensity are coupled with almost perfect intonation and balance so we get a strong sense of what the music is actually doing at any one time: all this acheived with little histrionic acting-out of the music. Abbado trusts the music itself to deliver its content without needing to intervene in the text in the obvious way that Tennstedt and Bernstein once had to. I think now people are getting used to the idea that Mahler's music is great because it is great music not because of its biographical content or other subsidiary concerns. It's the music that is moving, not the performance. What I love about Abbado is the placement of climaxes and the combination of fidelity to the text with what can only be called humanity and modesty. What Abbado does so well is to conceive of each symphony as a whole and relay that through the performance, through the relation of tempi to one another and through subtle shifts in the intensity of the execution. He does this even with those symphonies and movements where Mahler's invention taxes our ability to make sense of the form as a whole (for me the 3rd and 7th are particularly successful with Abbado and the LFO precisely because they so often seem to fall apart in performance). Perhaps because Abbado has performed so much radical 20th century music his performances often have a strict fidelity to Mahler's unconventional rhythmic and timbral language.
I also want to stick up my hand in favour of Sinopoli's amazing Mahler 8 which I think is underrated these days, as magnificent as the Solti is, Sinopoli does the kitschy "sound of music" elements of the second movement (such as the chorus of blessed boys) better than anyone and is blessed as well with Studer and Blasi at the top of their game.
Cheers from NZ