Although many people recommended Mahler 4th, I felt it was a little lacking in thrill and power, although the third movement was beautiful. I listened to Klemperer's Lied von Der Erde, seeing Wunderlich as a soloist, and I loved the piece; it was very exotic. I then listened to Mahler's second symphony, also from Klemperer, and I was quite frankly blown away by the cumulative power of it. I found that after a few listens it became much easier to follow the extremes of the symphony. I felt similarly about Mahler's 5th. In fact, I liked the Second so much that I am going to see it for my 16th birthday.
I also liked Brukner, although not as much as Mahler. I mostly listened to his 8th symphony and found that many of the themes and the climaxes were incredibly powerful, and the slow movement was beautiful, but the first two movements had too many starts and stops, and had slightly weird, almost repetitive structure. However, it was still a wonderful symphony. I think my comment of it being dull came from having the volume too low rather than anything else.
I would be curious about complete editions of these symphonies. I am interested in getting box sets as a start. For Mahler the complete 16 cd set with both of the aforementioned Klemperer recordings looks appealing, so I was wondering if that would be better than Kubelik or Bernstein's complete sets.
For Bruckner I have heard good things about Wand, Jochum, Haitink, and most of all Karajan, but also that Karajan's studio Bruckner cycle is terrible, so I would be curious about recommendations for that as well. Thanks
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