Mahler plays Mahler

[Philoctetes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK8l47x6mVc&feature=related

[DavidW]

Huh sounds like Chailly, maybe I should have held onto those recordings longer.

[oabmarcus]

i first listened to that recording a few years ago. But, really it does give you a ton of information about Mahler. A lot of "character", a bit odd, and very interesting. I hope more conductors can pick on this, and incorporate stuff into performances of his music.

[knight66]

This really is fascinating. I thought that a lot of piano rolls had a suspect reputation for quality and looked up the source of the recording while listening to it, it is a marvelous nuanced and subtle performance. Here is the technical explanation. The final sentence is also rather interesting.

http://www.classicalnotes.net/reviews/mahler.html

Now here are links to other Mahler rolls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVzJKOVe644

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpVToNCqZOc

This latter really pushes the singer and I prefer more space to be allowed, whether authentic or not.

Mike

Edit: Here is a different kind of roll for comparison. The volume is really contriolled by how many keys are involved at any moment, though towards the end there are seemingly some gentler sounds, though they don't sing, rather sound quite mechnical, but it is nevertheless spectacular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmaehd-uhDU&feature=related

[Sergeant Rock]

This really is fascinating. I thought that a lot of piano rolls had a suspect reputation for quality and looked up the source of the recording while listening to it, it is a marvelous nuanced and subtle performance. Here is the technical explanation. The final sentence is also rather interesting.

I bought the CD when it was released (1993).



It is an amazing document. One thing your article didn't mention and that I think is very interesting: the rolls were incredibly expensive and very few were sold. The roll with the Fifth Symphony's first movement cost the equivalent of $165    The good old days weren't so good 

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Now here are links to other Mahler rolls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVzJKOVe644

Unfortunately this sounds bad and it's the wrong speed--too fast (almost a minute faster than the track on the CD). If copied from the CD it was an incompetent transfer to video. How do we get this deleted from YouTube? It's not a true picture of Mahler's playing.

The CD has a second track of this last movement, with Yvonne Kenny singing (Mahler didn't play the vocal part). I prefer a much slower pace but I have to admit, this sounds great. Mahler knew what he doing   

Sarge