Tír Na HiFi

Borodin - Symphony No.2 (Neeme Jarvi, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon)

Vinyl....

Haitink´s Mahler is a well known quantity: thoughtful, respectful, well organized and throughly reliable. It misses though, Bernstein´s hysterical excitement, Kubelik´s uncanny facility for the Jewish tunes, Abbado´s unsurpassed understanding of the many things that go through Mahler´s head, and Karajan´s super polished elegance.
The interest in this new Ninth is the magnificent playing of the BRSO. Their Mahler pedigree goes back to the 60´s when they recorded the cycle under Kubelik, but in spite of that it´s an orchestra more readily associated with Bruckner than Mahler (with the Concertgebouw it´s the other way around).
Well, I´m happy to report that it´s a very distinguished performance, more characterful than usual with Haitink. The playing as expected is spectacular, and the recording quality is superb too.

Jose Echenique wrote: Haitink´s Mahler is a well known quantity: thoughtful, respectful, well organized and throughly reliable. It misses though, Bernstein´s hysterical excitement, Kubelik´s uncanny facility for the Jewish tunes, Abbado´s unsurpassed understanding of the many things that go through Mahler´s head, and Karajan´s super polished elegance.
The interest in this new Ninth is the magnificent playing of the BRSO. Their Mahler pedigree goes back to the 60´s when they recorded the cycle under Kubelik, but in spite of that it´s an orchestra more readily associated with Bruckner than Mahler (with the Concertgebouw it´s the other way around).
Well, I´m happy to report that it´s a very distinguished performance, more characterful than usual with Haitink. The playing as expected is spectacular, and the recording quality is superb too.

Interesting comments Pepe. There are many splendid recordings of Mahler's Ninth available and I am particularly fond of the performance of the Ninth on this box set of Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Mahler's Symphonic cycle :



I think that it is the finest Mahler recording in their cycle.

Jose Echenique wrote:

Haitink´s Mahler is a well known quantity: thoughtful, respectful, well organized and throughly reliable. It misses though, Bernstein´s hysterical excitement, Kubelik´s uncanny facility for the Jewish tunes, Abbado´s unsurpassed understanding of the many things that go through Mahler´s head, and Karajan´s super polished elegance.
The interest in this new Ninth is the magnificent playing of the BRSO. Their Mahler pedigree goes back to the 60´s when they recorded the cycle under Kubelik, but in spite of that it´s an orchestra more readily associated with Bruckner than Mahler (with the Concertgebouw it´s the other way around).
Well, I´m happy to report that it´s a very distinguished performance, more characterful than usual with Haitink. The playing as expected is spectacular, and the recording quality is superb too.

Interesting comments indeed Pepe. Interestingly, I do not have any performances of Mahler by Haitink in my collection which surprises me a little but I do have some of Haitink's Bruckner which I find majestic. I do agree with you on the Abbado cycle which is magnificent. I must admit that I have been ignoring Mahler of late but there is so much to listen to....

This is a 2 CD set comprising music from and played on instruments from the Middle Ages on CD1 and the same for music from the Renaissance on CD2. Some of the airs can be plaintive and melancholy and some of them can be raucous but all are intriguing and charming and really well presented. It was a most interesting and enjoyable listen.

fergus wrote:I must admit that I have been ignoring Mahler of late but there is so much to listen to....

Repent, you sinner, repent! :)

even streamed from the phone to mid-fi it sounds great....

Seán wrote:

fergus wrote:I must admit that I have been ignoring Mahler of late but there is so much to listen to....

Repent, you sinner, repent! :)

Consider me suitably admonished!