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Another list of Mahler Symphonies

32K views 92 replies 48 participants last post by  DarkAngel 
#1 · (Edited)
After doing some research I have compiled the list I most want for Mahler's symphonies. Comments appreciated. If you think I am totally off the mark on a particular recording then let me know. The ones I have already bought are in red.

no.1 Kubelik

no.2 Mehta

no.3 Abbado Jessye Norman version

no.4 Bernstein Sony

no.5 Bernstein DG live

no.6 Abbado live

no.7 Abbado live (same series as 6)

no.8 Solti

no.9 Barbirolli / Karajan ? should I get the famous karajan one?

no.10 Kubelik ( I don't want the Cooke version for now )
 
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#82 ·


Has anyone listened to this recording in this edition?

It's a Japan double CD that it's very inexpensive now in Amazon but features a Bernstein Mahler No.2 with the LSO in a cathedral that it's not available for streaming. I don't know if it's the same performance as the DVD.
 
#83 ·
I didn't know where to put it. I just found pictures of one of the OOP Mahler cycles from DG: the first recordings of the Abbado cycle in Vienna and Chicago (plus Berlin). The European release is OOP but some years ago DG sold a special edition with original covers on 14 CDs:











Not very relevant, but if I shut down my computer without sharing it, I would lose these pictures. It's one of the cycles I want to review in my Mahler final, over anything Abbado has done afterwards.
 
#84 ·
I didn't know where to put it. I just found pictures of one of the OOP Mahler cycles from DG: the first recordings of the Abbado cycle in Vienna and Chicago (plus Berlin). The European release is OOP but some years ago DG sold a special edition with original covers on 14 CDs:


It's one of the cycles I want to review in my Mahler final, over anything Abbado has done afterwards.
I have Syms 1,2,4,5,6,7 from this collection...#5 is absolutely outstanding - superbly played and recorded, right up at the top with Solti I and II....
Same with #7 - my preferred recording of the work...
2 and 6 are also very excellent...#s 1 and 4 [VPO] good, but not my favorites.
 
#85 ·
1. Solti / LSO; Walter / Columbia SO; Horenstein / LSO
2. Rattle / CBSO; Klemperer Philh.O; Walter / NYPO
3. Horenstein / LSO
4. Maazel / VPO
5. Barbirolli / NPO
6. Karajan / BPO
7. Abbado / Chicago SO
8. My Mahler blind spot. Tennstedt if I'm forced.
9. Barbirolli / BPO; Walter / Columbia SO; Klemperer NPO
10. Rattle / Bournemouth SO

I've forgotten something (perhaps more than one something) here.

I have an affection for the Solti recordings of 5-7 as I got to know the works from them when I was a student. I don't think they are superficial as some critics say. I've just discovered the exsitence of Horenstein's NPO 7th and will be investigating!

Why are 1 and 9 the Mahler symphonies which are so lucky on records?
 
#90 · (Edited)
My Mahler "essential recordings" list, plus further listening:

Symphony No. 1 ('Titan')

Bruno Walter (1939) (Music & Arts, IDIS)
F. Charles Adler (Tahra)
Sir John Barbirolli (Dutton)
Leonard Bernstein (DG)
Rafael Kubelik (DG)

Further listening: Bruno Walter (1954 live) (Urania), Dimitri Mitropoulos (1940) (Sony, Enterprise), Carlos Païta (Lodia), Ernest Borsamsky (Forgotten Records), Hermann Scherchen (MCA), Rafael Kubelik (1979) (Audite), Bruno Walter (1954 studio) (Sony), Jascha Horenstein (1970) (Unicorn), Georg Solti (1964) (Decca)

Symphony No. 2 ('Resurrection')

Sir John Barbirolli (1970) (EMI, Hunt, Arkadia, Living Stage)
Otto Klemperer (1965) (EMI)
Otto Klemperer (1962) (EMI)
Zubin Mehta (Decca)
Simon Rattle (EMI)

Further listening: Otto Klemperer (1951) (Decca, Guild, Archipel, Verona), Bruno Walter (1948 NYPO) (Bruno Walter Society, Music in the Mail), Hermann Scherchen (1959) (MCA), Leopold Stokowski (BBC), Leonard Bernstein (1963) (Sony), Bruno Walter (1957) (Music & Arts), Rafael Kubelik (DG), Claudio Abbado (1976) (DG), Georg Solti (1964)

Symphony No. 3

F. Charles Adler (1952 studio) (Harmonia Mundi, Music & Arts)
Jascha Horenstein (Unicorn)
Sir John Barbirolli (1969) (BBC)
Leonard Bernstein (Sony)

Further listening: Dimitri Mitropoulos (1960) (Tahra, ICA, Archipel), Claudio Abbado (1982) (DG), Bernhard Haitink (1966) (Philips), Hermann Scherchen (1950) (Tahra), Rafael Kubelik (Audite), James Levine (RCA)

Symphony No. 4

Jo Vincent/Willem Mengelberg (Philips, Grammofono, Dante Lys, Iron Needle)
Heather Harper/Sir John Barbirolli (BBC)
Hilde Güden/Bruno Walter (1955) (DG, Andromeda)
Margaret Price/Jascha Horenstein (CfP)

Further listening: Irmgard Seefried/Bruno Walter (1950) (MCA, Orfeo, Tahra), Irmgard Seefried/Bruno Walter (1953) (Tahra, Music & Arts), Emmy Loose/Paul Kletzki (EMI), Judith Raskin/George Szell (Sony), Kathleen Battle/Lorin Maazel (Sony), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Otto Klemperer (EMI), Lucia Popp/Klaus Tennstedt (EMI)

Symphony No. 5

Sir John Barbirolli (EMI)
Jascha Horenstein (Pristine)
Frank Shipway (RPO)
Rudolf Schwarz (Everest)
Leonard Bernstein (DG)

Further listening: Václav Neumann (1967) (Philips, Brilliant Classics), Bruno Walter (Sony), Hermann Scherchen (1953) (Westminster), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Music & Arts), Hermann Scherchen (1962) (Stradivarius, Living Stage), Rafael Kubelik (1951) (Tahra), Rudolf Barshai (Brilliant Classics), James Levine (1978) (RCA), Klaus Tennstedt (1988), Claudio Abbado (DG), Herbert von Karajan (DG)


Symphony No. 6


Sir John Barbirolli (EMI)
Eduard van Beinum (Tahra)
Leonard Bernstein (DG)
Jascha Horenstein (1969) (BBC)

Further listening: Sir John Barbirolli (Testament), Dimitri Mitropoulos (1955) (Archipel, NYPO), Hermann Scherchen (1961) (Tahra), Leonard Bernstein (Sony), Herbert von Karajan (DG), Thomas Sanderling (Real Sound)

Symphony No. 7

Otto Klemperer (EMI)
Jascha Horenstein (Music & Arts, BBC)
Hermann Scherchen (1965) (Music & Arts)
Claudio Abbado (1984) (DG)

Further listening: Kirill Kondrashin (1975) (Melodiya), Sir John Barbirolli (BBC, Barbirolli Society), Leonard Bernstein (DG), Sir Simon Rattle (EMI), Daniel Barenboim (Warner)

Symphony No. 8 ('Symphony of a thousand')

Jascha Horenstein (BBC)
Dimitri Mitropoulos (Orfeo, Music & Arts)
Leonard Bernstein (DG)
Georg Solti (Decca)

Further listening: Wyn Morris (Pickwick), Hermann Scherchen (Tahra), Leopold Stokowski (1950) (Archipel, United Classics), Eduard Flipse (RPO, Scribendum), Claudio Abbado (1995) (DG), Klaus Tennstedt (EMI), Giuseppe Sinopoli (DG)

Symphony No. 9

Sir John Barbirolli/Torino RAI SO (1960) (IDIS, Archipel)
Sir John Barbirolli/Berlin PO (1964) (EMI)
Bruno Walter/Vienna PO (1938) (EMI, Dutton)
Herbert von Karajan/Berlin PO (1982) (DG)
Otto Klemperer/New Philharmonia Orch. (1967) (EMI)
Jascha Horenstein (1966) (Music & Arts)

Further listening: Kirill Kondrashin/Moscow PO (1964) (Melodiya), Karel Ancerl/Czech PO (1966) (Supraphon), Leonard Bernstein/Berlin PO (1979) (DG), Sir Simon Rattle/Berlin PO (2007) (EMI), Jascha Horenstein/Vienna SO (1953) (Vox), Bernard Haitink/Concertgebouw Orch. (1969) (Philips), Bruno Walter/Columbia SO (1961) (Sony), Carlo Maria Giulini/Chicago SO (1977) (DG), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Archipel, Music & Arts, Andante), Hans Rosbaud/SWR Symph. Baden-Baden (1954) (SWR, Andromeda, Arkadia), Herbert von Karajan (1980) (DG)

Das Lied von der Erde

Kathleen Ferrier/Julius Patzak/Bruno Walter (live) (Tahra, Andromeda)
Kersten Thorborg/Carl Martin Ohman/Carl Schuricht (Minerva)
Alfreda Hodgson/John Mitchinson/Jascha Horenstein (BBC)
Janet Baker/Waldemar Kmentt/Rafael Kubelik (Audite)
Christa Ludwig/Fritz Wunderlich/Otto Klemperer (EMI)

Further listening: Kathleen Ferrier/Richard Lewis/Sir John Barbirolli (APR, Dutton), Kathleen Ferrier/Julius Patzak/Bruno Walter (Decca), Kersten Thorborg/Charles Kullmann/Bruno Walter (Dutton, Naxos), Janet Baker/John Mitchinson/Raymond Leppard (BBC), Maureen Forester/Richard Lewis/Bruno Walter (Music & Arts), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau/Murray Dickie/Paul Kletzki (EMI), Brigitte Fassbaender/Francisco Arraiza/Carlo Maria Giulini (Testament), Nan Merriman/Ernt Haefliger/Eduard van Beinum (Philips), Janet Baker/James King/Bernhard Haitink (Philips)

.
 
#93 ·
My Mahler "essential recordings" list, plus further listening:

Symphony No. 8 ('Symphony of a thousand')

Jascha Horenstein (BBC)
Dimitri Mitropoulos (Orfeo, Music & Arts)
Leonard Bernstein (DG)
Georg Solti (Decca)

Further listening: Wyn Morris (Pickwick), Hermann Scherchen (Tahra), Leopold Stokowski (1950) (Archipel, United Classics), Eduard Flipse (RPO, Scribendum), Claudio Abbado (1995) (DG), Klaus Tennstedt (EMI), Giuseppe Sinopoli (DG)


BH have you heard the Pristine XR remaster of this famous Mahler 8, originally recorded by BBC with single microphone at massive Royal Albert Hall it now has very noticeable improvement in sound quality and fine detail, also random crowd noise dramatically excised, this cannot be missed.......as always long HD sound sample at website

https://www.pristineclassical.com/products/pasc440?_pos=32&_sid=577f59c1a&_ss=r

"The word "classic" is sometimes applied to a recording carelessly, but not in this case. We can be nothing but grateful to Andrew Rose for his stunning remastering of this riveting performance" - Fanfare
 
#91 ·
I began listening to classical music in ca. 1987 when LPs were still quite common. Mahler was merely a name to me for another couple of years but I remember the stunning "feather" covers of the Abbado Mahler LPs. These were luxury items... I only got his cso 7th much later with a different cover but once I got a little bit into Mahler these strange feather details seemed oddly appropriate.
 
#92 ·
I definitely share your sentiment. I bought it for the feathers! :lol: ... Since then I've been through Abbado's other No. 7 recordings with the BPO, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and Lurcerne Festival Orchestra; and while I prefer his latter live recordings, the "feathers" Chicago recording is still special.

 
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