GMG Classical Music Forum

I'm really surprised there hasn't already been a poll on this topic! Well, my vote goes for no. 2. It's quite possibly my favorite symphony and one of my favorite pieces of classical music :) Each movement is so contrasted and the whole piece has that immensely satisfying "darkness to light" journey. I die and go to heaven every time I listen to that ending!

Easy pick for me: Symphony No. 7. Here's why I picked it (as I wrote on another forum):

There's something different about his 7th. Many complain about the finale being too 'joyous' but I think this is musical irony at it's best (think of the type of feeling in the last movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5). There is something incredible distraught and downright eerie about this particular symphony. The Scherzo reminds of a person on horseback with a latern riding through a haunted graveyard with some caskets that have been dug up and the skeletons are just lying around. Such a morbid movement and the rest of the symphony has a similar type of feeling throughout. You get the feeling that Mahler's mind was slipping a bit during writing this symphony.

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 06, 2013, 04:32:47 PM
Easy pick for me: Symphony No. 7. Here's why I picked it (as I wrote on another forum):

There's something different about his 7th. Many complain about the finale being too 'joyous' but I think this is musical irony at it's best (think of the type of feeling in the last movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5). There is something incredible distraught and downright eerie about this particular symphony. The Scherzo reminds of a person on horseback with a latern riding through a haunted graveyard with some caskets that have been dug up and the skeletons are just lying around. Such a morbid movement and the rest of the symphony has a similar type of feeling throughout. You get the feeling that Mahler's mind was slipping a bit during writing this symphony.

Yeah, I think the Seventh is really underrated. I never see it on concert programs! Each movement of this work, except for the magically beautiful Nachtmusik II, has something very unsettling beneath the surface. Shostakovich was definitely inspired by this symphony!

Quote from: kyjo on August 06, 2013, 04:40:37 PM
Yeah, I think the Seventh is really underrated. I never see it on concert programs! Each movement of this work, except for the magically beautiful Nachtmusik II, has something very unsettling beneath the surface. Shostakovich was definitely inspired by this symphony!

I think it's Mahler's finest symphony, but we all have our favorites which this poll will reveal in time. As for Shostakovich being inspired by this symphony, I'm sure he was! The whole eerie atmosphere of this work leaves me perplexed but at the same time it leaves a smile on my face. Pure genius.

Favorite Mahler Symphony?
The First, I suppose. Unless it's the Second. Or maybe the Third.  No, the Fourth.....

.......I think you get my point.

I can't tell which,  The Second is the one which I get the most enjoyment from hearing,  but I get different things from all of them,  and I wouldn't want to be without any of them.  (Nor DLvdE, although you didn't put that in the options.)

I suppose the only objective factor--how many different recordings of each work I have--would say it's either the Second or the Ninth, since I have about thirty five recordings for each of them.

I know it can be difficult, Jeffrey. Have you decided on your favorite yet? :)

Quote from: kyjo on August 06, 2013, 05:37:25 PM
Have you decided on your favorite yet? :)

Let's ask Daniel (MadaboutMahler) this question and see what he says and how many times he changes his mind. ;)

The ninth for me.

Quote from: DavidW on August 06, 2013, 07:23:11 PM
The ninth for me.

Ditto.

20 years ago = 3rd
10 years ago = 9th
Today = 7th

7th got my vote, my tastes or rather preferences in Mahler have changed throughout the years, still all fine, but the enigma of the 7th captures my imagination unlike any of the others these days.

Although my continuing interest in choral/vocal has the 4th and especially the 8th building steam, the second part of the 8th is magic, endlessly expressive, a shame it took me so long to enjoy it this much.
Must have been the 8th by Boulez on DG that did the trick.  ;)

Quote from: kyjo on August 06, 2013, 03:38:24 PM
I'm really surprised there hasn't already been a poll on this topic!

Seriously? GMG doesn't have a poll on Mahler symphonies?!

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic=19217.0
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=17824.0 (Poll or no poll, everyone will eventually name everything that there is to name.)

And these probably were the seven-hundred-and-twentieth and seven-hundred-and-twenty-first times that this topic has cropped up, in one way or another.


*Goes off to post links in the "What's in your head?" thread* ;D ;)

That means that the surprise is well founded!  ;D

Quote from: karlhenning on August 07, 2013, 06:13:48 AM
That means that the surprise is well founded!  ;D

Or maybe the Search function is disabled. :P

Quote from: Opus106 on August 07, 2013, 06:11:49 AM
Seriously? GMG doesn't have a poll on Mahler symphonies?!

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic=19217.0
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=17824.0 (Poll or no poll, everyone will eventually name everything that there is to name.)

And these probably were the seven-hundred-and-twentieth and seven-hundred-and-twenty-first times that this topic has cropped up, in one way or another.

We can't have too many Mahler polls. We can always use another.

My vote, as always, is the A minor. Cowbells! Hammers! Relentless Fate! 8)

Sarge

Fate decided to relent, after all . . . .

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 07, 2013, 06:28:34 AM
My vote, as always, is the A minor. Cowbells! Hammers! Relentless Fate! 8)

Sarge

In SA or AS format? (The details are important, you know, for the aliens to track the trend of preferences when they go through all the polls. :D)

Quote from: Opus106 on August 07, 2013, 06:51:01 AM
In SA or AS format? (The details are important, you know, for the aliens to track the trend of preferences when they go through all the polls. :D)

SA! AS is an abomination! Gustav should never have fiddled with his original thoughts. (And three hammerblows, please.)

Sarge

Quote from: Opus106 on August 07, 2013, 06:51:01 AM
In SA or AS format? (The details are important, you know, for the aliens to track the trend of preferences when they go through all the polls. :D )

And remember, this is for posterity so be honest.

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0HOlSGNFuw/TSGWw4J9lSI/AAAAAAAAAEo/FYbrVdOunH4/s1600/the-pit-of-despair.jpg)

I reluctantly decided on 9 as my other choice, 7, is pulling me hard the other way...

Quote from: Opus106 on August 07, 2013, 06:20:55 AM
Or maybe the Search function is disabled. :P

I went through all seven pages of polls to make sure there were no polls already on this topic ::) Like Sarge says, we could always use another Mahler poll 8) BTW I'm really surprised no one has voted for no. 5 yet!

Quote from: kyjo on August 07, 2013, 07:32:50 AM
I went through all seven pages of polls to make sure there were no polls already on this topic ::)

The polls section was recently added to the forum so that all (future) GMG Silly Polls™ can be put in one place. Most of the older ones, though, weren't shifted to it and can be found roaming the abandoned alleyways of General Classical Music Discussion.

When you're searching for a particular topic, I'd suggest that you limit the searches to thread subjects. It will give you a shorter, and more relevant, list to wade through. :)

Quote from: Opus106 on August 07, 2013, 07:58:05 AM
The polls section was recently added to the forum so that all (future) GMG Silly Polls™ can be put in one place. Most of the older ones, though, weren't shifted to it and can be found roaming the abandoned alleyways of General Classical Music Discussion.

When you're searching for a particular topic, I'd suggest that you limit the searches to thread subjects. It will give you a shorter, and more relevant, list to wade through. :)

Thanks for the tip!

Gotta be the Second  8)

Quote from: kyjo on August 07, 2013, 07:32:50 AM
I'm really surprised no one has voted for no. 5 yet!

Well, can't say I am surprised as 5, 8 and 10 are the only three that has not been my favorite at one time or another. All the others have taken their turns.

About the choice of 9 over 7... well, it is kind of like Tiger Wood still rank #1 after not playing golf for six months. I did count all the accumulated points from previous years.

I've never really warmed to no. 8 or the completed version of no. 10 (I love the first movement which Mahler completed). No. 8 is more like an oratorio than a symphony, an idea which has contributed to my difficulty getting to grips with it.

I am and probably will be the only vote for 3.

Quote from: Brian on August 07, 2013, 09:55:42 AM
I am and probably will be the only vote for 3.

It got four votes in the poll two years ago. If those voters are still around, and haven't changed their minds in the meantime...

Sarge

9 & 4 depending on the mood.

Quote from: Drasko on August 07, 2013, 12:33:57 PM
9 & 4 depending on the mood.

So 6.5 on average. We should round up to 7 then?!?!? :)

Surprised I didn't make a poll on this years ago.  ???

Quote from: karlhenning on August 07, 2013, 04:38:27 AM
Ditto.

Didn't know this.  ???

My favorite is the 9th, as it is my favorite piece of music/creative work in generall, overall.

I love the 4th but I have to choose the 2nd.  :)

My usual answer to this question is either the Second or the Sixth; as neither of these needs the vote, the Eighth it is!  8)

Quote from: Wanderer on August 08, 2013, 01:46:38 AM
My usual answer to this question is either the Second or the Sixth; as neither of these needs the vote, the Eighth it is!  8)

Now, there is a person who'd case vote for a third party candidate!

Quote from: springrite on August 08, 2013, 01:49:22 AM
Now, there is a person who'd case vote for a third party candidate!

Two words: Greek politics.

Quote from: Greg on August 07, 2013, 01:41:12 PM
Didn't know this.  ???

My favorite is the 9th, as it is my favorite piece of music/creative work in generall, overall.

Jimmy conducted the Ninth here at Symphony, and it was a wonderful evening of music.

Budapest Festival Orchestra/Iván Fischer will perform the 9th at the end of November here in Budapest. I think it will be the concert of the year for me.  :) (Now I am waiting for the 5th on Channel Classics what they recorded last year. That concert was good but tempos were too slow for me sometimes. One of the violinists said they performed faster at the recording.)

Quote from: karlhenning on August 07, 2013, 04:38:27 AM
Ditto.

:o No bananas, then :D

I voted for the 7th, but 9th and 5th aren't that far behind (or 2nd, 6th, 4th, 1st, 8th)

Quote from: karlhenning on August 08, 2013, 02:13:28 AM
Jimmy conducted the Ninth here at Symphony, and it was a wonderful evening of music.

Jimmy = James Levine?

Quote from: Greg on August 08, 2013, 07:16:28 AM
Jimmy = James Levine?

Aye.

Quote from: North Star on August 08, 2013, 06:25:32 AM
:o No bananas, then :D

Well, as a johnny-come-lately enthusiast for the Mahler symphonies, I've not yet reached the banana stage.

(http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/drizzd/drizzd0912/drizzd091200030/6028932-frozen-number-nine--9--on-black-background--3d-illustration.jpg)

Quote from: karlhenning on August 08, 2013, 02:13:28 AM
Jimmy conducted the Ninth here at Symphony, and it was a wonderful evening of music.

His recording of the Ninth with the Munich Philharmonic (on Oehms) is one of my favorite recordings of that symphony.  I'm fairly sure it was Sarge who alerted me to the excellence of that performance.

The Second, as it's always been, though I love them all.  Although I had already heard the First and Fifth on recordings, it was hearing Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony do the Second in 1989 at Symphony Hall that made me fall completely in love with Mahler's music.  Which I still am nearly 24 years later...

Symphony No.6 for me, what an absolutely pasisonate, thrilling and hauntingly beautiful work! ;D

Its #2, the Resurrection for me.  I used to be fascinated by the Klemperer and Bernstein recordings, both of  them very good, and interpretive opposites.  Klemperer seemed to minimize the differences in dynamics and tempos to make it one, long, unified, granitic work.  Bernstein seemed to  think the main problem was maintaining interest through such a long work, and he chose to do so by exaggerating tempo and dynamic changes.  I have loved them both, though Bernstein's British one with the LSO, Janet Baker and Sheila Armstrong is the best of his three recordings of the work.

Since those early acquaintances when I first started collecting in earnest in the early 1970's, I have learned to love others as well.  Among the best are Kubelik and Segerstam.  If you're only going to have once cycle of the Mahler symphonies, the Kubelik, in my opinion, is the one to get, though I own well over 20 cycles.

I've been listening to Mahler--really for the first time--throughout the summer, and have been enjoying his work immensely.  At this point, though, I would really have a hard time choosing a favorite symphony, in part because I haven't fully familiarized myself with all of them, and in part because they each seem like such stylistic  collages (except, perhaps, for the more unified 4th) that I'd probably have to choose favorite individual movements rather than entire works.  If forced to choose, though, I'd probably lean in the direction of the 5th, 7th, or 9th, perhaps because I gravitate toward the darker, more tragic moods I perceive in those symphonies (though they are rarely maintained throughout the entire work).  Number one is a bit too folksy, number 6 a bit too jauntily martial, number 8 too operatic, and nos. 2 and 3 a bit too sprawling for me to name any of them as a standout favorite, although there are qualities I admire in each of them, and my judgment may well change as I get to know them better.  Number 4 is an odd one for me, in that really enjoy it almost more than I think I should, as I don't normally respond to such cheery, Haydnesque work, but something about it just draws me in, at least until the somewhat anticlimactic (IMO) vocal song at the end.  It's almost like my favorite work among those whose style I wouldn't expect to favor.

Frankly, one of the things I like about Mahler's work is precisely the qualities that make it so hard to choose a favorite symphony--like the Klimt paintings and Art Nouveau designs that so often grace the covers of Mahler recordings, his music seems to twist and turn in upon itself, constantly transmogrifying its forms and colors, keeping listeners off balance and reframing their expectations.

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 06, 2013, 04:32:47 PM
Easy pick for me: Symphony No. 7. Here's why I picked it (as I wrote on another forum):

There's something different about his 7th. Many complain about the finale being too 'joyous' but I think this is musical irony at it's best (think of the type of feeling in the last movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5). There is something incredible distraught and downright eerie about this particular symphony. The Scherzo reminds of a person on horseback with a latern riding through a haunted graveyard with some caskets that have been dug up and the skeletons are just lying around. Such a morbid movement and the rest of the symphony has a similar type of feeling throughout. You get the feeling that Mahler's mind was slipping a bit during writing this symphony.

Agree with everything you say here, John! Not so long ago, I would have said 6 within a second, but 7 has after repeated listens recently has become one I hold dearest. I love them all of course, and would be happy to say either 6 or 9, but 7 it is for now! ;)

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 06, 2013, 05:53:47 PM
Let's ask Daniel (MadaboutMahler) this question and see what he says and how many times he changes his mind. ;)

:P ;D

Erde!!!

Today it is 6. It is nearly always 6. It is so...perfect. But 7 can be sneaky, and so can 2 (I found a copy of the more recent Ozawa in a stack of CDs I didn't know I had, and liked it; and then the Boulez!). They're pretty much in a tie for first place, followed by 3.

Today it is 6. I loved it the first time I heard it, and had to have more. It is simply one of the perfect things in the universe.

No love for the Tenth?

Even as a hybrid, or as a one-movement fragment, the work is very strong.  I followed Cooke's versions throughout the years, and have a copy of the score for the original performing version from the early 1960's.   

Did anybody have it as a second or third choice?

Quote from: Cato on June 29, 2015, 06:27:13 AM
No love for the Tenth?

Even as a hybrid, or as a one-movement fragment, the work is very strong.  I followed Cooke's versions throughout the years, and have a copy of the score for the original performing version from the early 1960's.   

Did anybody have it as a second or third choice?

I like it, but not as a second or third choice. And because of the way I imprinted on it (Bernstein's Sony 3-CD set with 7 and 9), when it pops up (first movement only), I think I'm listening to the end of 9 (the other last movement).

I'm surprised so many people have voted for the Sixth, incidentally. I didn't think it was anyone else's favorite besides Sarge's.

No. 2. The most epic symphonic journey you can go on in music.

6th for me, although there are several others I listen to more often--6th is a little intense for regular listening. I might've picked Das Lied over all the numbered ones if it had been an option.

The one I listened to last.  Or the one that's currently playing inside my head; there's often one of them there. ;D

But I voted for #8.  Yes, I said it and will say it again; #8 has a "pride of place" in my heart since it was the first I heard, but for other reasons as well.

But then there is #6.  Aside from its catastrophic, cathartic nature, it is also Mahler's most "classical" symphony, even more so than #4.

And of course, #3... :laugh:

Related question: How many Mahler symphonies have we heard live? 8) Mahler is one of those composers whose music is best experienced live, since recordings, however well made, mostly do not give listeners the sense of the work's scale.

I have heard #1 through #7 live at various times.  I've played #1 and #4.

Quote from: jochanaan on July 29, 2015, 07:25:20 AM
Related question: How many Mahler symphonies have we heard live?

I have heard #1 through #7 live at various times.  I've played #1 and #4.

All but 1, 4, and (my favorite) 6. I've heard 2 twice and 3 three times, so I should have heard 6 six times.

Quote from: jochanaan on July 29, 2015, 07:25:20 AM
Related question: How many Mahler symphonies have we heard live?

I've heard them all live, plus Klagende Lied:

1 Lane/Cleveland; Maazel/Vienna
2 ?/Rheinland Pfalz; Ormandy/Cleveland; Järvi/Frankfurt
3 Chailly/Leipzig
4 Maazel/Cleveland
5 Bamert/Cleveland; Welser-Möst/Cleveland; Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin
6 Szell/Cleveland; Abbado/Cleveland; Maazel/Cleveland; Sergerstam/Rheinland-Pfalz
7 Tennstedt/Cleveland; Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin
8 Boulez/Staatskapelle Berlin
9 Haitink/Cleveland; Pesek/Royal Liverpool
10 Harding/Vienna
Klagende Lied Boulez/Cleveland

I can't recall who the conductor was when I heard the Second performed in the Rosengarten in Mannheim in 1975. That concert was my first date with the future Mrs. Rock. My memory of her that evening is razor sharp; the music, not so much  ;)

Sarge

My favourites are 1,5,6 and 9 plus the great Adagio of No. 10.

Having now completed a circuit of 1 through 10 (one movement version), my thoughts:

- Adagio of No. 3
- Adagio of No. 4
- Scherzo and Finale of No. 5
- No. 8
- Adagio of No. 9
- Adagio of No. 10

... hmm.

Also have to say No. 6 has stuck in my memory best out of all of them, though I don't have much patience to listen through the whole thing; random marchy bits of the outer movements will pop into my head in time with background noises. (It feels like the piece should go a lot faster than most people conduct it, like... <20' + 12' + 12' + 25'ish or so... but True Mahlerians™ seem to disagree.) I do think it's the best non-adagio finale of any Mahler symphony. However the Andante moderato is... um... boring. Hate to say it ;)

5 is probably the one I'm going to be most inclined to listen to in the future, but it's too obvious an answer. I'll go with 8 since no one loves it and it's lonely :c

Quote from: amw on July 30, 2015, 05:14:11 AM
...I'll go with 8 since no one loves it and it's lonely :c

More love for A Thousand! ;D

The ones in the 3x table. I split the difference and went with 6, but 3 and 9 would do it fine too.

#4 for me. I just love it's bucolic good cheer, that beautiful adagio and the drama of the last movement as it skirts around the idea of death being a passage to heavenly joys.

After that it's 1, 5 and 2

Quote from: amw on July 30, 2015, 05:14:11 AM
Also have to say No. 6 has stuck in my memory best out of all of them, though I don't have much patience to listen through the whole thing; random marchy bits of the outer movements will pop into my head in time with background noises. (It feels like the piece should go a lot faster than most people conduct it, like... <20' + 12' + 12' + 25'ish or so... but True Mahlerians™ seem to disagree.) I do think it's the best non-adagio finale of any Mahler symphony. However the Andante moderato is... um... boring. Hate to say it ;)

update: on the recordings front, I've found Kubelik/Audite to come closest to what I think No. 6 should be (the andante is a little indulgent, and the hammers are MIA but they're not that important), Kondrashin/USSR to be my favourite No. 5 (I do very much like Bruno Walter, but his Scherzo—maybe my favourite single movement in Mahler along with the adagio of No. 3—is a little breathless), and Solti seems to have the best singers in No. 8 and is pretty inexpensive. (I generally trust Solti in opera, and 8 is close enough to that) For No. 4 I have temporarily settled on Fischer/BFO, and for No. 3 on Salonen/LA, both of which are basically soloist-driven choices and I might change my mind later.

Quote from: amw on July 30, 2015, 05:14:11 AM
Also have to say No. 6 has stuck in my memory best[...] It feels like the piece should go a lot faster than most people conduct it, like... <20' + 12' + 12' + 25'ish or so... but True Mahlerians™ seem to disagree.

Barbirolli's Sixth seems to be an overwhelming favorite...but I have several problems with it, and not just because of the first movement dirge.

Quote from: amw on August 01, 2015, 03:41:12 AM
update: on the recordings front, I've found Kubelik/Audite to come closest to what I think No. 6 should be (the andante is a little indulgent, and the hammers are MIA but they're not that important)

Most of my favorite Sixths are fairly quick in the first movement (Solti, Szell, Karajan, Bernstein) but none of them come close to Kubelik's sprint ;D  I've never gotten on with it, but I'm glad you've found a performance that meets most of your standards.

Sarge

Quote from: Luke on July 31, 2015, 01:26:11 PM
The ones in the 3x table. I split the difference and went with 6, but 3 and 9 would do it fine too.

And look at me, with no clear sense of having listened to 3 . . . .

I do like Bernstein quite a bit, actually—at least in the outer movements. Don't know the other three.

Kubelik's finale, even without hammers, is insanely dramatic and leaves almost no room for a noble concluding elegy the likes of what I've come to expect—the trombones are still riding out the immense energy of the movement and play with a kind of passionate (but very much alive) despair, so that when the final explosion arrives it feels like it's cutting off the music mid-stream rather than 'crashing down like an iron curtain after the drama has concluded' as someone described it. It's like... all hope gets snuffed out only with the final bars, rather than (as many people play it) with the third hammer-stroke or even before that when the triumphant bit dissolves back into the introduction. Not all listeners will get much out of that

Today I listened to another well-recommended recording of the finale among Mahlerians (Zander/Boston) and, apart from one very nice moment—the abrupt spaciousness of the final triumphant section, which makes it really seem like it's going to lead into a bittersweet, glass-half-full kind of ending for half a second—it was disappointing and I think that's entirely because it was 32'. Kubelik's 26' gives the finale just the right levels of ferociousness and neuroticism (25' might gloss over too much, actually). And his tempo in the first movement is not actually much faster than Bernstein (Alma theme starts at 2:21 in K, 2:24 in B) but Bernstein broadens a lot for the Alma theme which I think is a mistake (it should be v high energy, one could make a case for playing it faster than the march though that's risky) and for the cowbells, which is probably the right decision—I think it's the finale above all that benefits from being taken faster.

Quote from: amw on August 01, 2015, 05:24:34 AMKubelik's 26' gives the finale just the right levels of ferociousness and neuroticism (25' might gloss over too much, actually). And his tempo in the first movement is not actually much faster than Bernstein (Alma theme starts at 2:21 in K, 2:24 in B)

Yes, by the clock it isn't (even when Bernstein DGG takes 2:32 to get to Alma) but there's something about Kubelik's recording (the leaner orchestral weight perhaps?) that makes it seem much faster, even comically so...to me anyway. But I like your description of the Finale. I'll have to give it another go.

For ferociousness, if not neuroticism (his is actually rather classically restrained in the psychological department), try Solti too. And his is one of the few recordings with three hammerblows. It takes him just a second more than Kubelik to get to Alma...and his first movement Coda is spectacular, the fraction of a second hesitation before he launches it takes my breath away. The Finale at 27:28 is just about right, I think.

Sarge

Is Kubelik/audite much different from Kubelik/DG? I have the latter and I am not really in the market for another Mahler 6 but I'd still be interested if the DG also fits the impression above.

Any particular reason you chose that [the "completed" (aka bastardized) versions by Cook/Wheeler/Carpenter] for the poll rather than just the Adagio completed by ol' Gustav?

Quote from: Scion7 on August 01, 2015, 10:51:14 AM
Any particular reason you chose that [the "completed" (aka bastardized) versions by Cook/Wheeler/Carpenter] for the poll rather than just the Adagio completed by ol' Gustav?

It's been nineteen months since kyjo, the op, was last active in the forum. I doubt you'll get an answer from him.

Sarge

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 01, 2015, 01:01:24 PM
It's been nineteen months since kyjo, the op, was last active in the forum. I doubt you'll get an answer from him.

Sarge

Verily, verily, I will hound his shade to the ends of the earth until he doth respond.  Curse his spleen!   :P

Quote from: Scion7 on August 01, 2015, 10:51:14 AM
Any particular reason you chose that [the "completed" (aka bastardized) versions by Cook/Wheeler/Carpenter] for the poll rather than just the Adagio completed by ol' Gustav?

Maybe he meant the Barshai version which is much much better than the Cooke.

(OK, it's still not real Mahler)

Quote from: Scion7 on August 01, 2015, 10:51:14 AM
Any particular reason you chose that [the "completed" (aka bastardized) versions by Cook/Wheeler/Carpenter] for the poll rather than just the Adagio completed by ol' Gustav?

Actually, Cooke's "performing version" as conducted by Chailly is pretty awesome. Ditto for Barshai's (a slightly lesser degree of awesomeness there). I don't like Wheeler's or Carpenter's versions. I don't agree with the naysayers or buy the "authenticity" card; there's more Mahler in a performing version of the Tenth than there is Mozart in the Requiem. It's time the Tenth be included in the canon I say.

Quote from: Wanderer on August 04, 2015, 09:55:21 AMI don't agree with the naysayers or buy the "authenticity" card; there's more Mahler in a performing version of the Tenth than there is Mozart in the Requiem. It's time the Tenth be included in the canon I say.

Hear, hear!


Sarge

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 05, 2015, 06:44:52 AM
Hear, hear!


Sarge

Amen!   0:)  I followed Cooke's efforts from the beginning to his final version in the 1970's, and have found the results more than satisfactory.

Quote from: Wanderer on August 04, 2015, 09:55:21 AM
...there's more Mahler in a performing version of the Tenth than there is Mozart in the Requiem...

True.  The difference is that Mozart left only bits and pieces of what became the next movements of his Requiem, while Mahler left a full draft of the Tenth in "short score." 8) We only miss the master's hand in orchestration--and that is no small thing; Mahler was one of the greatest orchestrators in all music.

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 01, 2015, 06:02:13 AM
For ferociousness, if not neuroticism (his is actually rather classically restrained in the psychological department), try Solti too.

I do have to say Solti has the best sound of any M6 recording I've heard—every tiny detail of the orchestration is audible. So that's a plus. The Andante is slow and kind of wallowy, not what I'd describe as 'restrained', lol. But otherwise you're right, it has a good sense of drive and impending doom without... over-accentuating the negative? Or something like that

Quote from: amw on August 09, 2015, 03:56:41 AMThe Andante is slow and kind of wallowy, not what I'd describe as 'restrained', lol.

I was thinking restrained compared to, for example, Karajan (17:10) or Sinopoli (19:53!). Since you are less than enamored with the Andante, try Szell, who gets it over with quickly (13:28).

Sarge

I have not compared interpretations but I think the andante from the 6th is my favorite (instrumental) slow Mahler movement, except for the 9th.