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Mahler 6 + 7 + 8
Posted by Evan Blackmore on January 6, 2023, 9:30 am
Like everyone else here, I’ve been enthralled and fascinated by Lee Denham’s book-length (50,000 words!) survey of Mahler Seventh recordings. Still haven’t taken it all in.
Lots of interesting ramifications, some of which extend well beyond the bounds of the Seventh.
I’ve been specially interested by Lee’s argument that ‘it is a work that undoubtedly moves from darkness to the sunshine of C Major in its final movement…. For me, it is indeed a journey of the night, from the darkness that the listener is plunged into at the end of the Sixth Symphony when the music topples over into the abyss, to the blazing light of the opening of the Eighth Symphony’s hymn “Veni, Creator Spiritus”.’
This idea intrigues me. My wife & I often listen to Mahler’s Knabenhorn symphonies (2 + 3 + 4) as a set, in matching performances, on 3 successive eveings. Ditto with the Rückert symphonies (5 + 6 + 7).
If I wanted to listen to [?5 +] 6 + 7 + 8 performed as a journey into the light, in a stylistically homogeneous sequence (same conductor, same orchestra) on successive evenings, what would be my best option?
Many of the finest recordings of 7 take the opposite view, and invest its finale with (in Lee’s words) a ‘sense of Shostakovichian irony, of a triumphant final movement that is not really triumphant.’ (Bernstein, for instance, was an outspoken advocate of that view, both in his comments and in his recordings.)
Also, some of the conductors who DO present the finale of 7 as a journey into the light didn’t record 8.
Subtracting all those, what are my best remaining options? Haitink (using his very Christmassy Kerstmatinee 7, and perhaps the vibrant 1968 live 6 in his Q Disc box)? Neumann?? Adam Fischer???
Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8
Posted by Marc Bridle on January 6, 2023, 5:23 pm, in reply to "Mahler 6 + 7 + 8"
Using your criteria of same conductor/orchestra I'd choose Sinopoli/Philharmonia, not least because his recordings of those three symphonies, with the possible exception of Nr.8, offer the most challenging perception of the journey between them. That is especially true of Nr.6 and Nr.7. I don't think any complete cycle is quite as difficult as the Sinopoli one for the listener. Nor more rewarding.
The complete survey of the M6 is in my hands and I will send you in the direction of one very dark horse recording. It's Fabio Luisi and the Orchestre de Suisse Romande. The CD is extremely expensive, but the download is affordable. Otherwise, the Haitink '68 M6 is a good choice (probably his best attempt at this symphony). Mahler 8 used to be done so infrequently; not so today, the discography is large. My feeling is that a lot of conductors who don't otherwise conduct Mahler (like Thielemann) conduct M8 - as did Colin Davis - and treat it as if Mahler never composed the work. Those performances one should avoid (add Abbado to that list, too). Sinopoli is still as recommendable today as he was when his recording appeared back in the 1980s.
Previous Message
Like everyone else here, I’ve been enthralled and fascinated by Lee Denham’s book-length (50,000 words!) survey of Mahler Seventh recordings. Still haven’t taken it all in.
Lots of interesting ramifications, some of which extend well beyond the bounds of the Seventh.
I’ve been specially interested by Lee’s argument that ‘it is a work that undoubtedly moves from darkness to the sunshine of C Major in its final movement…. For me, it is indeed a journey of the night, from the darkness that the listener is plunged into at the end of the Sixth Symphony when the music topples over into the abyss, to the blazing light of the opening of the Eighth Symphony’s hymn “Veni, Creator Spiritus”.’
This idea intrigues me. My wife & I often listen to Mahler’s Knabenhorn symphonies (2 + 3 + 4) as a set, in matching performances, on 3 successive eveings. Ditto with the Rückert symphonies (5 + 6 + 7).
If I wanted to listen to [?5 +] 6 + 7 + 8 performed as a journey into the light, in a stylistically homogeneous sequence (same conductor, same orchestra) on successive evenings, what would be my best option?
Many of the finest recordings of 7 take the opposite view, and invest its finale with (in Lee’s words) a ‘sense of Shostakovichian irony, of a triumphant final movement that is not really triumphant.’ (Bernstein, for instance, was an outspoken advocate of that view, both in his comments and in his recordings.)
Also, some of the conductors who DO present the finale of 7 as a journey into the light didn’t record 8.
Subtracting all those, what are my best remaining options? Haitink (using his very Christmassy Kerstmatinee 7, and perhaps the vibrant 1968 live 6 in his Q Disc box)? Neumann?? Adam Fischer???
Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8
Posted by Lee Denham on January 6, 2023, 10:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8"
Hi Evan - and thank you for your kind words about the Mahler 7 Survey. It was an interesting experience and while it is indeed over 50,000 words, that is still 14,000 less than my conspectus on Mahler's First Symphony, but it took four times longer to complete.
In answer to your question, I note that my distinguished colleague, Marc Bridle, has come up with an interesting suggestion with Sinopoli. Normally Marc and I agree on many things and indeed I certainly would second his endorsement of Haitink's live 1968 Mahler 6, as well as picking up on your point about how some conductors not only didn't conduct the Eighth, but even some experienced hands (such as Abbado [as suggested by Marc] as well as Haitink) didn't do it very well either. However, while I find Sinopoli's Mahler to usually be very interesting, I also find him a little left-field even if, to be fair, it is consistently left field. So my own nomination for a consisent one conductor led symphonies 5,6,7 & 8 would probably be from Bernstein's second DG cycle where the Fifth and Sixth are amongst the very best of all, with the Seventh and Eighth not far behind. Clearly that one is from a single cycle, but an alternative would be a mix and match Klaus Tennstedt - his late, live accounts of the Fifth and Sixth with the LPO are terrific and could be supplemented by the 1987 Philadelphia Seventh and any of his Eighths; all showcase the child-like wonder he habitually brought to his Mahler performances.
Ironically then how Tennstedt was the one conductor whose final Mahler Seventh with the LPO challenged my views of the symphony to its foundations - I think this was one of very last times he conducted in public and quite possibly was his final public engagement (I hope more knowledgeable readers will correct me if I am wrong - he did conduct a Weber Overture [I think] with a student orchestra after it, but nothing else that I am aware of). This final recording is most certainly not a journey from darkness to light, unlike before - the long shadows from the first movement obstinately remain and haunt the the jubilation of the final movement, which now sound forced and hollow. It is a remarkable reading and perhaps indicates why I found this conspectus so much harder to complete than that of the First Symphony. Hopefully the Eighth (which is the next one I will do) will be easier, but beforehand we have Marc's own Conspecus on the Sixth to look forward to.
That said, these are just my own opinions and, as always, I would be fascinated to learn those of others.
Best wishes,
lee
Previous Message
Using your criteria of same conductor/orchestra I'd choose Sinopoli/Philharmonia, not least because his recordings of those three symphonies, with the possible exception of Nr.8, offer the most challenging perception of the journey between them. That is especially true of Nr.6 and Nr.7. I don't think any complete cycle is quite as difficult as the Sinopoli one for the listener. Nor more rewarding.
The complete survey of the M6 is in my hands and I will send you in the direction of one very dark horse recording. It's Fabio Luisi and the Orchestre de Suisse Romande. The CD is extremely expensive, but the download is affordable. Otherwise, the Haitink '68 M6 is a good choice (probably his best attempt at this symphony). Mahler 8 used to be done so infrequently; not so today, the discography is large. My feeling is that a lot of conductors who don't otherwise conduct Mahler (like Thielemann) conduct M8 - as did Colin Davis - and treat it as if Mahler never composed the work. Those performances one should avoid (add Abbado to that list, too). Sinopoli is still as recommendable today as he was when his recording appeared back in the 1980s.
Previous Message
Like everyone else here, I’ve been enthralled and fascinated by Lee Denham’s book-length (50,000 words!) survey of Mahler Seventh recordings. Still haven’t taken it all in.
Lots of interesting ramifications, some of which extend well beyond the bounds of the Seventh.
I’ve been specially interested by Lee’s argument that ‘it is a work that undoubtedly moves from darkness to the sunshine of C Major in its final movement…. For me, it is indeed a journey of the night, from the darkness that the listener is plunged into at the end of the Sixth Symphony when the music topples over into the abyss, to the blazing light of the opening of the Eighth Symphony’s hymn “Veni, Creator Spiritus”.’
This idea intrigues me. My wife & I often listen to Mahler’s Knabenhorn symphonies (2 + 3 + 4) as a set, in matching performances, on 3 successive eveings. Ditto with the Rückert symphonies (5 + 6 + 7).
If I wanted to listen to [?5 +] 6 + 7 + 8 performed as a journey into the light, in a stylistically homogeneous sequence (same conductor, same orchestra) on successive evenings, what would be my best option?
Many of the finest recordings of 7 take the opposite view, and invest its finale with (in Lee’s words) a ‘sense of Shostakovichian irony, of a triumphant final movement that is not really triumphant.’ (Bernstein, for instance, was an outspoken advocate of that view, both in his comments and in his recordings.)
Also, some of the conductors who DO present the finale of 7 as a journey into the light didn’t record 8.
Subtracting all those, what are my best remaining options? Haitink (using his very Christmassy Kerstmatinee 7, and perhaps the vibrant 1968 live 6 in his Q Disc box)? Neumann?? Adam Fischer???
Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8
Posted by dieter barkhoff on January 7, 2023, 1:04 am, in reply to "Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8"
What a wonderful Pandora's box you opened with your marvelous compendium, Lee. It's so fascinating for me to read all these opinions and recommendations, some with which I agree, and some with which I don't, and that's the beauty of these dialogues. Lee hits these artistic 'quandaries' on the head when he points out how Tenstedt's last recording - the Mahler 7 - is so intensely different from his others. It's possibly the very definition of the way we should simply regard a recording of an event on a given day or week or period - as is the case with some recordings - and that very few of them should be regarded as canonical. And, as Lee puts it, in the end, it is all a matter of taste, conviction or opinion, even as to the value or the rank of a work/symphony, etc itself. For example, for me, the only 'music' in the 8th, occurs in the opening of the second movement. I gave up on Religious Dogma when I was fifteen or so, and just about the only religion I can abide is to do with pantheism, as in Janacek's Glagolitic Mass. Having said that, I love listening to Bach, Monteverdi, Biber, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Handel when they 'Mass on', as they say. In other words, my musical tastes are a contradiction in themselves. Having said that, I recall commenting to my beloved wife as we watched the opening Chorus of the 3rd part of the Christmas Horatorio - the Lutz performance on YuuTube, such an infectiously great performance - that I wish they hadn't shown the sub-titles. And yet, when the Dresden Boys conducted by Flamig sing Et in Terra pax Hominibus in the Gloria of Bach's first Lutheran Mass, I always burst into tears.
Previous Message
Hi Evan - and thank you for your kind words about the Mahler 7 Survey. It was an interesting experience and while it is indeed over 50,000 words, that is still 14,000 less than my conspectus on Mahler's First Symphony, but it took four times longer to complete.
In answer to your question, I note that my distinguished colleague, Marc Bridle, has come up with an interesting suggestion with Sinopoli. Normally Marc and I agree on many things and indeed I certainly would second his endorsement of Haitink's live 1968 Mahler 6, as well as picking up on your point about how some conductors not only didn't conduct the Eighth, but even some experienced hands (such as Abbado [as suggested by Marc] as well as Haitink) didn't do it very well either. However, while I find Sinopoli's Mahler to usually be very interesting, I also find him a little left-field even if, to be fair, it is consistently left field. So my own nomination for a consisent one conductor led symphonies 5,6,7 & 8 would probably be from Bernstein's second DG cycle where the Fifth and Sixth are amongst the very best of all, with the Seventh and Eighth not far behind. Clearly that one is from a single cycle, but an alternative would be a mix and match Klaus Tennstedt - his late, live accounts of the Fifth and Sixth with the LPO are terrific and could be supplemented by the 1987 Philadelphia Seventh and any of his Eighths; all showcase the child-like wonder he habitually brought to his Mahler performances.
Ironically then how Tennstedt was the one conductor whose final Mahler Seventh with the LPO challenged my views of the symphony to its foundations - I think this was one of very last times he conducted in public and quite possibly was his final public engagement (I hope more knowledgeable readers will correct me if I am wrong - he did conduct a Weber Overture [I think] with a student orchestra after it, but nothing else that I am aware of). This final recording is most certainly not a journey from darkness to light, unlike before - the long shadows from the first movement obstinately remain and haunt the the jubilation of the final movement, which now sound forced and hollow. It is a remarkable reading and perhaps indicates why I found this conspectus so much harder to complete than that of the First Symphony. Hopefully the Eighth (which is the next one I will do) will be easier, but beforehand we have Marc's own Conspecus on the Sixth to look forward to.
That said, these are just my own opinions and, as always, I would be fascinated to learn those of others.
Best wishes,
lee
Previous Message
Using your criteria of same conductor/orchestra I'd choose Sinopoli/Philharmonia, not least because his recordings of those three symphonies, with the possible exception of Nr.8, offer the most challenging perception of the journey between them. That is especially true of Nr.6 and Nr.7. I don't think any complete cycle is quite as difficult as the Sinopoli one for the listener. Nor more rewarding.
The complete survey of the M6 is in my hands and I will send you in the direction of one very dark horse recording. It's Fabio Luisi and the Orchestre de Suisse Romande. The CD is extremely expensive, but the download is affordable. Otherwise, the Haitink '68 M6 is a good choice (probably his best attempt at this symphony). Mahler 8 used to be done so infrequently; not so today, the discography is large. My feeling is that a lot of conductors who don't otherwise conduct Mahler (like Thielemann) conduct M8 - as did Colin Davis - and treat it as if Mahler never composed the work. Those performances one should avoid (add Abbado to that list, too). Sinopoli is still as recommendable today as he was when his recording appeared back in the 1980s.
Previous Message
Like everyone else here, I’ve been enthralled and fascinated by Lee Denham’s book-length (50,000 words!) survey of Mahler Seventh recordings. Still haven’t taken it all in.
Lots of interesting ramifications, some of which extend well beyond the bounds of the Seventh.
I’ve been specially interested by Lee’s argument that ‘it is a work that undoubtedly moves from darkness to the sunshine of C Major in its final movement…. For me, it is indeed a journey of the night, from the darkness that the listener is plunged into at the end of the Sixth Symphony when the music topples over into the abyss, to the blazing light of the opening of the Eighth Symphony’s hymn “Veni, Creator Spiritus”.’
This idea intrigues me. My wife & I often listen to Mahler’s Knabenhorn symphonies (2 + 3 + 4) as a set, in matching performances, on 3 successive eveings. Ditto with the Rückert symphonies (5 + 6 + 7).
If I wanted to listen to [?5 +] 6 + 7 + 8 performed as a journey into the light, in a stylistically homogeneous sequence (same conductor, same orchestra) on successive evenings, what would be my best option?
Many of the finest recordings of 7 take the opposite view, and invest its finale with (in Lee’s words) a ‘sense of Shostakovichian irony, of a triumphant final movement that is not really triumphant.’ (Bernstein, for instance, was an outspoken advocate of that view, both in his comments and in his recordings.)
Also, some of the conductors who DO present the finale of 7 as a journey into the light didn’t record 8.
Subtracting all those, what are my best remaining options? Haitink (using his very Christmassy Kerstmatinee 7, and perhaps the vibrant 1968 live 6 in his Q Disc box)? Neumann?? Adam Fischer???
Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8
Posted by Evan Blackmore on January 7, 2023, 11:03 am, in reply to "Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8"
Thank you all for your fascinating responses. Delighted to hear that surveys of the Sixth and Eighth are in the pipeline--very much looking forward to those!
I don't know Sinopoli's Mahler--never collected it when it first came out--but I generally find him congenial company even at his most eccentric, and, sampling snippets of his Mahler, I do think it might add something to my shelves. I don't know that there's much difference between saying that it's uniquely "difficult... for the listener" (Marc) and saying that it's "a little left-field" (Lee). I can well understand that it might not be a first choice, or the set for which one reaches most often. But for someone in my position, it might still provide a valuable counterbalance to those that I have already.
Tennstedt is home territory in our household, but we have only his relatively bland EMI studio Seventh and his very dark final one, so I hadn't thought of him as presenting the "darkness to light" view. Must explore further!
I grew up thinking that the Seventh depicts humanity's doomed and ineffectual aspirations to escape from the nihilism of the Sixth (cf. Bernstein et al), so Lee's "darkness to light" view comes as something of a novelty to me, and one that I find very attractive. It certainly seems to me more idiomatically Mahlerian. And whatever we make of the Eighth, it surely isn't a study of "doomed and ineffectual aspirations"!
Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8
Posted by Marc Bridle on January 7, 2023, 1:37 pm, in reply to "Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8"
I do partially agree with Lee's views on Bernstein, although he, too, didn't really do Mahler 8 very well. The VPO M6 is a devastating performance, however. It can be a little rough at times but I don't think I want precision in this symphony (one reason the Barbirolli is so compelling is because almost he alone brings a vulnerability and humanity to this symphony that no one else touches on). Around the time Bernstein made his earlier Sony recording he also gave a live performance (if I remember the day before he went into the recording studio, so around late April 1967). It has never been officially issued, other than on the Karna label. It's a bit like the Barbirolli NPO studio/live recordings - chalk and cheese really. Most unlike Vienna, however.
Tennstedt came to M7 much earlier than he did M6. There are alternatives to the LPO in M7 as I think Lee points out: Cleveland Orch (1978), Philadelphia Orch (1987), and the Danish Radio SO (1982). One can certainly get hold of the PO and DRSO recordings these days (from 78experience.com). The Cleveland one I'm not so sure about. The DRSO one appeared just as Lee was sending his survey off for publication - no doubt he'll cover it in a future update. if you wanted to investigate Tennstedt further these are at least viable options.
Incidentally, I mentioned to Lee recently the fascination - perhaps obsession is better a word - with the M8 in Japan. The number of recordings made in Japan outnumbers any other country. This 'history' goes back to the late 1940s when the symphony received its premiere, earlier than in several western countries (and a decade before the Japanese premiere of Bruckner's Nr.8 to put it into some kind of perspective). Japanese conductors don't particularly do Mahler cycles (the Wakasugi is a rare example of a complete one) but they do conduct Mahler Nr.8. And they do it very well. But then so did Sinopoli and the Philharmonia when they went to Tokyo to do M8 - hopefully it will be properly issued one day, as happened with the famous LPO M5 that Tennstedt did in Tokyo.
Previous Message
Thank you all for your fascinating responses. Delighted to hear that surveys of the Sixth and Eighth are in the pipeline--very much looking forward to those!
I don't know Sinopoli's Mahler--never collected it when it first came out--but I generally find him congenial company even at his most eccentric, and, sampling snippets of his Mahler, I do think it might add something to my shelves. I don't know that there's much difference between saying that it's uniquely "difficult... for the listener" (Marc) and saying that it's "a little left-field" (Lee). I can well understand that it might not be a first choice, or the set for which one reaches most often. But for someone in my position, it might still provide a valuable counterbalance to those that I have already.
Tennstedt is home territory in our household, but we have only his relatively bland EMI studio Seventh and his very dark final one, so I hadn't thought of him as presenting the "darkness to light" view. Must explore further!
I grew up thinking that the Seventh depicts humanity's doomed and ineffectual aspirations to escape from the nihilism of the Sixth (cf. Bernstein et al), so Lee's "darkness to light" view comes as something of a novelty to me, and one that I find very attractive. It certainly seems to me more idiomatically Mahlerian. And whatever we make of the Eighth, it surely isn't a study of "doomed and ineffectual aspirations"!
Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8
Posted by Lee Denham on January 8, 2023, 11:10 am, in reply to "Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8"
Hi Evan
Thank you for your response. Marc is doing the Sixth and Tenth (very brave!) symphonies, whereas I am doing the Eighth. I'm not sure when it will appear though, since it took six months to do the Conspectus for the First and then two years for the Seventh. Some conductors really presented some difficult challenges with the Song of the Night; I struggled for weeks to articulate quite why Claudio Abbado is so good in this symphony, since he does not really "interpret" the work (in an interventionalist way, such as Bernstein, Tennstedt, Barbirolli, Kobayashi, etc) and yet the end results are always incredibly persuasive. Haitink was another - his style did not change at all (always sane, sober, tasteful etc), but his interpretations often differed markedly, even if they made little difference to the overall impression created. It all seemed so much easier with the First Symphony !
Similarly, as Marc points out, sometimes it takes longer to track down the recordings required than it does to review them - I hope his warnings to me about how difficult it may be to find some of those Japanese Mahler Eighths are misplaced, but he's usually right about these things. In the end I had to give up with a handful of Mahler Sevens which seemed to have completely disappeared off the face of the earth, but when they do reappear I'll be ready.
Agree totally that you appear to have the alpha and omega of Tennstedt's Sevenths in your collection - I've just checked and the Philadelphia reading is available on Youtube if you wish to sample it; in my opinion, it's an incredible performance and is much better played that the slightly easier to find Edinburgh Festival performance with the LPO.
I've also noted a small flaw in my recommendations to you as well, since both Tennstedt and Bernstein switch orchestras with the Seventh (with Bernstein he switches from the VPO to the NYPO, while Tennstedt switches from the LPO to Philadelphia); apologies for that. I also agree to an extent with Marc with Bernstein's Eighths - the live VPO account in the second cycle is compromised by a weakly recorded organ, but that aside it is a performance I rate highly. With Sinopoli you will hear things that just aren't there with other conductors, good and bad - a fascinating supplement for the Mahlerian who thinks they have heard everything that needs to be said about the music and one that should not be confused with Evgeny Svetlanov's Russian cycle which, in comparison to Sinopoli, makes the Italian sound as innocent and pure as a parish priest.
Best wishes,
lee
Previous Message
I do partially agree with Lee's views on Bernstein, although he, too, didn't really do Mahler 8 very well. The VPO M6 is a devastating performance, however. It can be a little rough at times but I don't think I want precision in this symphony (one reason the Barbirolli is so compelling is because almost he alone brings a vulnerability and humanity to this symphony that no one else touches on). Around the time Bernstein made his earlier Sony recording he also gave a live performance (if I remember the day before he went into the recording studio, so around late April 1967). It has never been officially issued, other than on the Karna label. It's a bit like the Barbirolli NPO studio/live recordings - chalk and cheese really. Most unlike Vienna, however.
Tennstedt came to M7 much earlier than he did M6. There are alternatives to the LPO in M7 as I think Lee points out: Cleveland Orch (1978), Philadelphia Orch (1987), and the Danish Radio SO (1982). One can certainly get hold of the PO and DRSO recordings these days (from 78experience.com). The Cleveland one I'm not so sure about. The DRSO one appeared just as Lee was sending his survey off for publication - no doubt he'll cover it in a future update. if you wanted to investigate Tennstedt further these are at least viable options.
Incidentally, I mentioned to Lee recently the fascination - perhaps obsession is better a word - with the M8 in Japan. The number of recordings made in Japan outnumbers any other country. This 'history' goes back to the late 1940s when the symphony received its premiere, earlier than in several western countries (and a decade before the Japanese premiere of Bruckner's Nr.8 to put it into some kind of perspective). Japanese conductors don't particularly do Mahler cycles (the Wakasugi is a rare example of a complete one) but they do conduct Mahler Nr.8. And they do it very well. But then so did Sinopoli and the Philharmonia when they went to Tokyo to do M8 - hopefully it will be properly issued one day, as happened with the famous LPO M5 that Tennstedt did in Tokyo.
Previous Message
Thank you all for your fascinating responses. Delighted to hear that surveys of the Sixth and Eighth are in the pipeline--very much looking forward to those!
I don't know Sinopoli's Mahler--never collected it when it first came out--but I generally find him congenial company even at his most eccentric, and, sampling snippets of his Mahler, I do think it might add something to my shelves. I don't know that there's much difference between saying that it's uniquely "difficult... for the listener" (Marc) and saying that it's "a little left-field" (Lee). I can well understand that it might not be a first choice, or the set for which one reaches most often. But for someone in my position, it might still provide a valuable counterbalance to those that I have already.
Tennstedt is home territory in our household, but we have only his relatively bland EMI studio Seventh and his very dark final one, so I hadn't thought of him as presenting the "darkness to light" view. Must explore further!
I grew up thinking that the Seventh depicts humanity's doomed and ineffectual aspirations to escape from the nihilism of the Sixth (cf. Bernstein et al), so Lee's "darkness to light" view comes as something of a novelty to me, and one that I find very attractive. It certainly seems to me more idiomatically Mahlerian. And whatever we make of the Eighth, it surely isn't a study of "doomed and ineffectual aspirations"!
Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8
Posted by Evan Blackmore on January 9, 2023, 10:02 am, in reply to "Re: Mahler 6 + 7 + 8"
Thank you again, Lee. Deeply, deeply grateful to everyone involved in these projects--I can only dimly imagine the work that goes into them. No marvel that there's such depth & richness of thought in every paragraph.
When constructing a home concert, I like to put together recordings that harmonize stylistically, but I'm not pedantic about demanding that they all have the same 2nd trombone. Indeed I think most good conductors leave their distinctive stylistic imprint on all their recordings regardless of orchestra. One can construct fully satisfying Furtwängler Brahms or Beethoven programmes zigzagging back & forth between Berlin, Vienna, etc. I don't think a change of orchestra in a Bernstein or Tennstedt programme would be likely to trouble me.
Your conspectus also left me keen to preface the Seventh with the Meistersinger Overture some evening. Not so hard to find matching recordings there!