Mahler Mania, Rebooted

[greg]

I'm late to it, as we dined late. But I've got Mahler up now.

Man, the 3rd movement is on and I'm probably just going to turn it off. One of the most lifeless performances I've heard. 

The Harbison was pretty fun. Very interesting atmospheric moments.

[karlhenning]

Man, the 3rd movement is on and I'm probably just going to turn it off. One of the most lifeless performances I've heard. 

Really?  I've been liking this.

[karlhenning]

I am puzzled; this waltz-ish part strikes me as absolutely vigorous!

[Brahmsian]

Hearing any Mahler symphony live is a treat, having heard the 5th and 6th already.  I am kicking myself now for having missed the WSO opening concert of the season, which featured Mahler's 1st.

[karlhenning]

Hearing any Mahler symphony live is a treat, having heard the 5th and 6th already.  I am kicking myself now for having missed the WSO opening concert of the season, which featured Mahler's 1st.

You can still catch most of the Adagietto fourth movement and on, Ray.

[greg]

I am puzzled; this waltz-ish part strikes me as absolutely vigorous!

Well, it got pretty lively there in the 3rd movement. The Adagietto (I missed more than the first half of it)... whoa... nearly every version I've heard is too slow, and this one of the slowest I've heard. Ugh. The 5th movement was pretty good, though.

Hearing any Mahler symphony live is a treat, having heard the 5th and 6th already.  I am kicking myself now for having missed the WSO opening concert of the season, which featured Mahler's 1st.

I missed the Resurrection being performed in Orlando, but I doubt there was much to miss... 

[Brahmsian]

Well, it got pretty lively there in the 3rd movement. The Adagietto (I missed more than the first half of it)... whoa... nearly every version I've heard is too slow, and this one of the slowest I've heard. Ugh. The 5th movement was pretty good, though.

I missed the Resurrection being performed in Orlando, but I doubt there was much to miss... 

I enjoyed the 5th movement a lot tonight, Karl & Greg!  The Adagietto seemed a little slow to me as well, more of a Lentetto or Larghetto. 

I can't wait to hear live someday the 2nd, 3rd, 9th and now the 7th (which I'm really starting to dig now, because of, its enigmatic nature).

Perhaps.....even one day, I may even yearn to hear the Symphony of a Thousand Headaches. 

[karlhenning]

I enjoyed the 5th movement a lot tonight, Karl & Greg!  The Adagietto seemed a little slow to me as well, more of a Lentetto or Larghetto. 

Jimmy does tend to broader tempi these days; I thought that he and the band held it together wonderfully, though. I was gripped.

[DavidRoss]

Jimmy does tend to broader tempi these days; I thought that he and the band held it together wonderfully, though. I was gripped.

Perhaps, then, you'll be in the market for:

[jlaurson]

Perhaps.....even one day, I may even yearn to hear the Symphony of a Thousand Headaches. 

...hearing it tonight, actually... with Christian Thielemann. :-)

[jlaurson]

Ionarts-at-Large: Mahler's Eighth Under Christian Thielemann
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/ionarts-at-large-mahlers-eighth-under.html

[DavidW]

I received the People's Edition today.  The liner notes would make a good coffee table book if bigger because it looks so neat and includes:

(1) chronology of Mahler's life
(2) with quotes from Mahler
(3) with quotes about Mahler
(4) nice photos of each conductor featured in the set
(5) the list everyone who voted for the survey, which I noticed included Jed Distler and our own Jens.

I'm going to have a great time listening to this set, these recordings must be blasted on the hifi.

[jlaurson]

I received the People's Edition today.  The liner notes would make a good coffee table book if bigger because it looks so neat and includes:

(5) the list everyone who voted for the survey, which I noticed included Jed Distler and our own Jens.

WTF? I thought I used a pseudonym.  (Since the edition *totally* didn't turn out the way I wanted it to... 

[DavidW]

Your cat probably changed it back to your real name when you weren't looking.

[Cato]

Over the weekend I picked up a Chicago Symphony broadcast concert of Mahler's Seventh Symphony conducted by Pierre Boulez.

Quite frankly, I was stunned and even awed: I have his DGG recording of the work with The Cleveland Orchestra, but have never had the chance to "crank it up" properly, so perhaps I will find the same experience there.

But hearing this Chicago performance in my car (just a 10-year old Malibu    with the usual small speakers (4 of them)) became ever more incredible.  Part of the experience was due to the position of the microphones in the orchestra: I felt like I was sitting among the musicians at times.

But the Boulez touch!!!  The work had a Kammermusik clarity which I had never experienced before: every instrument was heard, especially in the Second Movement: even the contrabasses were distinctive, and one knew exactly that everything they had to "say" was very important.  (Toledobass Allan will be glad to read that!)

And because of this clarity, one could detect links to a Schoenbergian/Webernian future, again especially in the second movement.

If you can find this performance available anywhere on the Internet, I will guarantee that you will not regret spending the time listening to it, no matter how often you have heard the Seventh, or if you think (like Bruno Walter) that it is somehow "weak."  If the latter is your opinion, I suspect you will change it, after hearing this.

[jlaurson]

Over the weekend I picked up a Chicago Symphony broadcast concert of Mahler's Seventh Symphony conducted by Pierre Boulez.

I'm looking forward to it being issued on CSO Resound. And I'm looking forward to hearing Boulez in the same work in Amsterdam in January.

[Cato]

I'm looking forward to it being issued on CSO Resound. And I'm looking forward to hearing Boulez in the same work in Amsterdam in January.

CSO Resound: I will need to look into that!  Normally I do not buy multiple recordings of any work, but this time could be an exception.

[karlhenning]

Sweet! Somehow, I find that I own three copies of the Mahler Seventh . . . .

[Cato]

Sweet! Somehow, I find that I own three copies of the Mahler Seventh . . . .

Wow!  Which ones?

Another footnote on this topic: Bruno Walter, as far as I know, besides opining that the Seventh was "weak," never recorded it.

He did, however, love the Fourth Movement quite a bit.

[karlhenning]

Wow!  Which ones?

CSO with Abbado
LSO with Tilson Thomas
Staatskapelle Berlin with Barenboim