Bernard Haitink's Mahler Symphonies

[brunumb]

londonrich: I elected to buy an all-region DVD player instead. From Samsung. Reviews are mostly very positive and the price is nice.

You could also try making your current DVD player region free:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

[André]

Heard so far: symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 7, plus Lieder of a Wayfarer (Benjamin Luxon). The Second is a great interpretation, played and sung at an exalted level by all concerned. Good interpretations of the others. The set does not include 6 and 8. Next on the menu: 3, 5 and 9, my favourites. I have tried without success to play the third. I don't know if the disc is defective, if it's me or the machine. The disc always comes back to the start. 

From what I see and hear, the orchestra plays gloriously , the winds esp. so. If there is one weakness, it's the low brass. Haitink cultivates a smooth sound throughout, and I miss a snarl, a cutting edge to their sound.

If memory serves, these are quite excellent, but this set willl not substitute for the older, compete cd set of performances.

[Marc]

Heard so far: symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 7, plus Lieder of a Wayfarer (Benjamin Luxon). The Second is a great interpretation, played and sung at an exalted level by all concerned. Good interpretations of the others. The set does not include 6 and 8. Next on the menu: 3, 5 and 9, my favourites. I have tried without success to play the third. I don't know if the disc is defective, if it's me or the machine. The disc always comes back to the start. 

From what I see and hear, the orchestra plays gloriously , the winds esp. so. If there is one weakness, it's the low brass. Haitink cultivates a smooth sound throughout, and I miss a snarl, a cutting edge to their sound.

If memory serves, these are quite excellent, but this set willl not substitute for the older, compete cd set of performances.

I.c. the technical problems: it looks like these sets are left-overs of the 1st issue, which had some strange problems. Funny: I reported the probs (also with the 9th) at my local shop, the shop owner said that there was no one who had complained before, but she did send a message to Universal and they reacted: complaints are justified, we will issue a new series without bugs.
So, with the 3rd you can pick the 2nd track, then fast rewind until the moment that Haitink enters the hall, and from then on it might work. Or: pick the last song of the 'Gesellen', go one track forward to the first movement of S3 and who knows, it might work (again).

I.c. the 9th: I recall problems with inequality of the video and audio track. To avoid this: you have to choose for the surround option, even if you only have a stereo speaker system.

I hope these 'tips' still work. I reported them in 2006 and Universal got the series replaced, but apparantly the 'bugged' box is the only one that's still available. Not a very chic thing to do, IMHO.

Anyway: André, good luck! You really should hear the 3rd and 9th, they're great!

[André]

Thanks Marc, I will definitely try this. I haven't had the chance to play 5 and 9 yet. Hopefully the problems will be restricted to the third and, hopefully again, your recipe will work ! The third under Haitink is one symphony I LOVE in both his previous COA version and his later CSO one. The naturalness of his approach works better than the manufactured outdoors of Bernstein or the manicured ones of Boulez.