I meant to remark on this sooner. About 2 months later, they recorded this piece (at Medinah Temple). That recording is part of the Solti/CSO/Mahler cycle (the one given top billing by the Penguin Guide). Both Hurwitz's book and the Boston Symphony overview tome called In Concert speak of the challenges of the naked opening trumpet solo. It must be cause for great reassurance to have Adolph Herseth handling that responsibility.

I attended a performance of the Mahler 6th on 2-10-08 at Disney Hall in LA with the LA Phil conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and the performance was excellent. Not as great as the CSO 5th with Solti but certainly meritorious. I lived in Houston, TX when Eschenbach was conductor of the Houson Symphony and heard wonderful perfomances of the 2nd and 3rd symphonies. After the CSO played the Mahler 5th in NYC, in 1969, Time Magazine which may not be the most authorative source declared the CSO the greatest symphony orchestra in the world. Two weeks ago 1-30-08, I heard the Royal Concertgebouw conducted by Mariss Jansons play the Mahler 5th and they did not equal the CSO performance I heard in 1970 although they are obviously a great orchestra. What I meant in my previous comment was that the CSO performance I attended in 1970 was the best orchestral performance I ever heard at any time and I have been to a lot of concerts.

I've never seen any Mahler performed, live, but it is one of my musical goals to see Das Lied von der Erde, one of my favorite vocal works of all time, performed live at some point. The Philadelphia Orchestra, unfortunately doesn't do much Mahler.

I would see the sixth symphony live over any other. Das Lied von der Erde would be excellent, also. I've not listened to that one very much...

I've recently just "discovered" Mahler's 7th symphony. I listened to it the first time about a month ago but it never really grabbed me until this week. Parts of it are becoming my favourite that he has composed.

Last night (2-25-08) I attended a performance of the Mahler 5th by the Czech Philharmonic at The Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa California. I did not think that their performance of the Mahler 5th was very impressive but they also played the 5th Symphony by Bohuslav Martinu which I had not heard before and which was beautifully played and a very impressive symphony. This concert was obviously really long. These days the LA area has a lot of performances to choose from. The CSO is winner and still champion of the Mahler 5th.

Really the only reason people love Bernstein's Mahler is that he does it with soul and spirit. Mahler is so wildly different than other composers in that he WANTED people to conduct it as grotesquely distended and soulful and with such wild abandon as did Bernstein. Some people may say he was over-the-top, but for Mahler he was perfect.

__________________
"Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n
wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu!
Was du geschlagen
zu Gott wird es dich tragen!"
-Gustav Mahler

For me, Bernstein's Mahler always sounds more epic and sprawling than, say, Solti's Mahler. However, I think Claudio Abbado does as fine, if not a finer job, than Bernstein on the later symphonies (6-9).

Discussion of conductors of Mahler=high potential for spirited argumentation.

Scherchen: s...l...o...w. Maybe it worked live, in a Celibidache-like way, but on recordings, I just don't get it.
Klemperer: I feel that his deliberation and majesty work. I really enjoy the GRC Das Lied von der Erde.
Szell: Highly regarded for his recordings of 4 and 6. Don't know if I'd like him for a cycle, though.
Bernstein: I don't doubt his "soul and spirit." Sometimes it seems like it's about him more than it's about Mahler.
Slatkin: The "other Leonard" is underrated. In converse, one never feels like it's about him.
Gielen: Variable. Nice 1 and 5- but's what's up with his tempo fluctuations in 2? (Recordings are overpriced, too.)
Solti: I wouldn't easily give up my Solti/CSO Mahler cycle. There's something viscerally exciting about Maestro and musicians giving the impression that demanding passages are always under control. Sometimes one marvels more at the orchestra that at Mahler. Still love it, though.
Tennstedt: My ichiban Mahler conductor. Commitment to burn, but with a dedication to the composer that's unequalled. 8th is more highly regarded by the critics, but oh, how I love that 9!

Bernstein over does it, in my opinion. He has it played so fast that it becomes hard to hear all of the "inner workings" of the orchestration. There are some recordings I have, namely Abbado's ninth and Rattle's Eighth which I wouldn't give up for anything!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Abbado actually won an award for his Sixth with the BPO didn't he?

yes, and i have that recording. Abbado's mahler symphonies with BP are great, but the sound is not very good, which is a shame really. The 6,7,9th symphonies are my favorites. I am a little shocked that no one has mentioned Boulez's 6th, which simply blew me away...

The best way to get any conductor's measure is to listen to his or her recordings with score in hand.

If you do that, you'll find that far from being "over the top," Bernstein is just very, very good at following directions. If his performances of Mahler sound "over the top," that is because it's Mahler who's over the top, not Bernstein. Bernstein's are the most scrupulously accurate performances of Mahler I've ever heard. I remember the first time I followed Bernstein's performance of the sixth with the score: uncanny. It's almost as if you are hearing Mahler conduct.

This is true, by the way, for many of Bernstein's so-called extravagances: he's just following directions. Sometimes he was the very first to do so, so of course it sounded odd.

There really is no objectivity in music-- it is an art. Composers write and conductors interpret. Both can be considered an art. There is no objective best for any composer, it all depends on what aspects of Mahler's composing you enjoy the most. What is considered loud to one person, may be moderate to someone else. A particular structural part of the score one person really likes, another may hate and want to "drown" out. To imply that conducting is objective is naive, to say the least.

I guess we are lucky here in Perth Western Australia, in the past 2 years and this year (2008) we will have had Mahler 9, 10, 6, 3, 4 and Das Lied von der Erde.

My perspective is "a useful aid in getting any conductor's measure is to listen to his or her recordings with score in hand." In other words, for me it's an assistance, but one of several. Sometimes, I even break out the electronic metronome... but I think if I go too far down that road, I'll make things just too quantitative, like the infamous "Pritchett essay" that was torn from the books in "Dead Poets' Society."

So, some, do you have multiple Mahler scores? What a great resource that must be! As for me, I only have #5.