On Tue, 26 Nov 2002 08:19:27 -0800 skip Heller <velaires(a)earthlink.net> wrote:
> > How about opinions on Mahler, specifically
> complete symphonic collections.
>
> Solti is the clear winner, with Mazel up there
> as well, although I like
> Bernstein's DG recording of the 5th (and I'm
> kind of a 5th guy).
Do you like Maazel's 5? I'm still really on the fence about that one after
years of trying. Bernstein's DG 5 is precisely one of the examples to which I
referred a moment ago, an improvement over the Sony version. The same cannot
be said for the DG 4, and not just because of Bernstein's perverse decision to
use a boy soprano in the final movement.
> Karajan (whose Mahler I don't like as a rule).
With the exception of an otherworldly 9 that he recorded right before he died,
I'm with you all the way on this one.
> Bruno Walter's recordings
> don't suck either.
Hell, yeah. I grew up on Walter's 1, which still rates well. And his 9,
recorded just before WWII broke out (and recently issued for a pittance on
Naxos) is magnificent, botched notes, sloppy attacks and all. Sounds like the
end of the world, which, for all Walter knew, it was.
> Gilbert Kaplan has conducted, I think, the 2nd
> over and over again. The
> last time he did, he packaged his symphony with
> recordings of the piano
> rolls Mahler made of his own pieces. Pretty
> interesting.
And more impressive still when you remember that Kaplan was a financier who
taught himself to read music and conduct specifically so he could do that one
piece, and has since become one of the world'd leading experts on it.
Steve Smith
ssmith36(a)sprynet.com
NP - Beethoven, Violin Sonata No. 1 - Dumay / Pires (DG)
