This latest CD of Mahler's First Symphony by Mehta and the New York Philharmonic is a performance that doesn't present the work's mixture of nature-poetry, youthful romance and apocalyptic grandioseness so convincingly as Solti's recent Chicago recording on Decca, nor with such winning charm as Walter's CBS classic LP which I reviewed last month. This is not to say that it does not have virtues of its own (though the strings' inability to play sempre ppp in the introduction is not one of them). The playing of woodwind and muted horns in that imaginative passage between figs. 12 and 15 in the first movement is no less fine than that of Solti's Chicagoans, and although the cellos' glissandos at this point are a trifle self-conscious compared with Chicago/Solti, at least they are there, whereas Chicago/Abbado on DG discreetly avoids too expressive an effect.
All three performances sound well on CD. My choice would be Solti's because I think it is one of the outstanding Mahler performances on record, the interpretation near-ideal, the playing marvellous and the recording bright and clear yet with a warmth appropriate to the conductor's approach. The same orchestra responds differently to Abbado, whose interpretation is characteristically musical yet somehow lacks the last degree of involvement. Mehta's is the most dramatic account, Solti's the most expansive (incidentally Solti and Abbado observe the first movement repeat, Mehta does not). Mehta's conducting of the scherzo, with tempos and rhythm highly elastic, is full of character and Schwung and it is here that the New Yorkers are at their best. I am puzzled why this Mehta CD should be divided into only three tracks (the first two movements as track I) whereas the others have four.'