Recordings That You Are Considering

[Sergeant Rock]

...it was the way you used the picture...

I blame Mad Men, the third season of which I've been watching on DVD. Those damned ad men will corrupt anyone 

Sarge

[Scarpia]

If the additional, and I admit, completely gratuitous picture of Jansen bothered you, I apologize...but hey, sex sells and I wanted my Mendelssohn choice to have a high profile here 

Someone will have to do a study and see if big boobs result in resonances which improve violin tone.

In any case, judging by the amount of blurring added to this picture, Mutter has definitively slipped out of the "babe' catagory.

[George]

 

[Sergeant Rock]

In any case, judging by the amount of blurring added to this picture, Mutter has definitively slipped out of the "babe' catagory.

The last time I saw Mutter live she was touring the world playing Mozart in the infamous green mermaid dress:





She didn't need any digital magic then but that was over four years ago. I've been photographing one of my models for forty years; she's in her 60s now and she would agree with me: Forget diamonds. Photoshop is a girl's best friend.

Nevertheless, Mutter is only 46. She's still a babe to me. Probably always will be 

Sarge

[Brian]

For those interested in such things, David Hurwitz had such a beef with Roger Norrington's new Mahler 9 that he wrote a nine-page review in PDF form explaining all of his problems with the recording. I've only counted a couple of acidic jokes so far; for most of the piece Hurwitz gets down to brass tacks and does his usual brutally efficient job laying out every single criticism he has with the performance.

I blame Mad Men, the third season of which I've been watching on DVD. Those damned ad men will corrupt anyone 

Sarge

Thanks to gift certificates and sales, I have purchased all 3 seasons of Mad Men on DVD for a grand total of $24. But I am still on season 1, episode 6!

[DavidRoss]

I blame Mad Men, the third season of which I've been watching on DVD. Those damned ad men will corrupt anyone 

"History will see advertising as one of the real evil things of our time. It is stimulating people constantly to want things, want this, want that." ~Malcom Muggeridge

[karlhenning]

Considering the MTT/SFSO recording of the Mahler Seventh.  In addition to this, I mean.

[Sergeant Rock]

Thanks to gift certificates and sales, I have purchased all 3 seasons of Mad Men on DVD for a grand total of $24. But I am still on season 1, episode 6!

Oh, you lucky bastard...lucky because you still have so many great episodes to see; and lucky because you only paid 24 bucks. I don't what to think about how much I paid 

Sarge

[DavidW]

For those interested in such things, David Hurwitz had such a beef with Roger Norrington's new Mahler 9 that he wrote a nine-page review in PDF form explaining all of his problems with the recording. I've only counted a couple of acidic jokes so far; for most of the piece Hurwitz gets down to brass tacks and does his usual brutally efficient job laying out every single criticism he has with the performance.

It's funny to see an amateur like that get all wound up and go on long tirades because he's mad that the performers ignore him and play it there way!  

[Sergeant Rock]

Considering the MTT/SFSO recording of the Mahler Seventh.  In addition to this, I mean.

Can't help you with that recording, Karl, but when I was in the market for a MTT M7 I checked several reviews and ultimately decided to buy his earlier, LSO M7. Here are two of the reviews that convinced:

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=520

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=9373


Sarge

[jlaurson]

Considering the MTT/SFSO recording of the Mahler Seventh. 

One of the (mild) disappointments of that cycle, I found.
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=1338
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=1351

[DavidW]

Considering the MTT/SFSO recording of the Mahler Seventh.  In addition to this, I mean.

If you want something to contrast with Abbado why don't you try Bernstein (DG)?

[Brian]

Can't help you with that recording, Karl, but when I was in the market for a MTT M7 I checked several reviews and ultimately decided to buy his earlier, LSO M7. Here are two of the reviews that convinced:

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=520

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=9373


Sarge

Guessing you just saw that the new one was "marginally swifter" and got the old one. 

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to watching more of Mad Men. My roommate had a really perceptive comment about the show: it works so well because it's so visually beautiful; you can pause it at any time, arbitrarily, and it will look like a marvelously framed still photograph. My roommate's a big comic book type guy, but he calls Mad Men the most stylistically individual (or original) show he's ever seen.

[mc ukrneal]

For those interested in such things, David Hurwitz had such a beef with Roger Norrington's new Mahler 9 that he wrote a nine-page review in PDF form explaining all of his problems with the recording. I've only counted a couple of acidic jokes so far; for most of the piece Hurwitz gets down to brass tacks and does his usual brutally efficient job laying out every single criticism he has with the performance.

Does he ever talk about the perfromance? He seems to spend so much time on minutiae, it sounds like he has an axe to grind. As reveiws go, he is aiming at the trees instead of the forest.

[Scarpia]

Does he ever talk about the perfromance? He seems to spend so much time on minutiae, it sounds like he has an axe to grind. As reveiws go, he is aiming at the trees instead of the forest.

You can't have a healthy forest full of rotten trees.  I haven't heard the recording, but the comments seem consistent with other recordings I have heard from Norrington.

[Bulldog]

Does he ever talk about the perfromance? He seems to spend so much time on minutiae, it sounds like he has an axe to grind. As reveiws go, he is aiming at the trees instead of the forest.

Hurwitz does have an axe to grind, and it's all about vibrato.  In addition to his love of vibrato, he feels that Norrington is dead wrong about its historical use.  Personally, I'm not a fan of vibrato.

[jlaurson]

...it sounds like he has an axe to grind...

Duh. 

Every once in a while, he just needs to get scientific about his prejudices to justify them to himself (and those who give him money). So you get a nine-page version of his 9 paragraph usuals.

[Sergeant Rock]

...it works so well because it's so visually beautiful; you can pause it at any time, arbitrarily, and it will look like a marvelously framed still photograph....

Indeed 



Sarge

[George]

Does he ever talk about the perfromance? He seems to spend so much time on minutiae, it sounds like he has an axe to grind.

If only he ever got a woman to grind instead. But alas, I have seen his photo...

[DavidRoss]

Considering the MTT/SFSO recording of the Mahler Seventh.  In addition to this, I mean.

You already know that I love this one, though the LSO one is darned near as good.  Interesting that Barry Guerrero reviewed the LSO disc for CT, but the Hurwitzer reviewed the SFS one.  It's hard to make direct comparisons that way, but also hard to overlook Hurwitz's mostly high praise...though one must wonder whether Hurwitz's hearing aid was on the fritz while the first two movements (or passages that he sampled) were playing.  "Poor sonics?"  "Lack of glamour and opulence?" An insufficiently imposing first movement introduction?  I'm listening to that recording as I type and these faults are not to be found it it.  If anything, the reason I prefer it to the also fine MTT/LSO 7th is because the SFS one is even lusher, more opulent and full-bodied in all the right places.

(Interesting, is it not, how many folks around here disparage Hurwitz, yet trot him out on those occasions when this inconsistent demagogue happens to agree with their preferences?)

Barry Guerrero does offer a capsule review of the SFS 7th on Amazon--I recommend reading all the reviews there, as the gamut and focus of opinion is enlightening.  Check out Dominy Clement's review on MusicWeb, which named it "Recording of the Month."

Note that you can also hear this recording (albeit not in the full glory of the CD or SACD sound) for free via Rhapsody http://www.rhapsody.com/san-francisco-symphony/mahler-symphony-no-7-in-e-minor ...and even compare it, if you wish, with MTT's LSO 7th http://www.rhapsody.com/gustav-mahler/symphony-no-7--ep-1999 ...and with several others such as Bernstein/NYPO and Boulez and Abbado/CSO and so on, if you wish.

One might also note that this recording won two Grammy awards (which do mean something, if hardly everything), for best orchestral recording and for best classical recording, period, of 2006. 

There are, of course, several other fine choices available, such as all of those listed above that can be heard via Rhapsody, but for my money the MTT/SFS recording is a fine choice to compliment the Abbado disc you now have and I just hate to see it unfairly maligned.

Finally, I note that via Amazon market, the MTT/LSO 7th is available new for $5 plus shipping--a heckuva bargain.  And also note that if I were seeking to expand my Mahler symphony horizons and needed to acquire not just a 7th, but many of the rest as well, Amazon sellers now offer the repackaged DGG cycle for the astonishing price of $34! That includes not only a fine and wonderfully Bernstein-extreme 7th, but hard to top recordings of most of the others as well!