Mahler Mania, Rebooted

[Brian]

I have still been thinking about the "favorite" question but then moved on to thinking about my Mahler listening habits in general. I only listen to each symphony about once a year. They're such "Big Events," after hearing one I think about it and go over it for days afterwards. Right now I'm still replaying last Friday's listen to 4 in my head. I feel like if I play them frequently enough they wouldn't be as special.

Looking at the log, so far this year I've played 1 three times and 4, 5, and 8 once. Last year 2 and 4 once and 7 twice (six months apart). It's also a mark of how intense and total-focus a Mahler symphony listening experience is that I've heard 7 just three times but, thinking about 7, already have several passages that come to mind with vivid clarity.

(Phone autocorrected vivid to covid, hah)

[NumberSix]

I spent few minutes this morning building Mahler cycle playlists for future easy reference. (Yay for streaming)

Playlists: Bernstein Sony, Kubelik, Rattle, Ozawa, Fischer, Chailly, Vanska**

I finally had to stop because it was getting out of hand, as if I am ever going to get around to listening to all of these. I'll probably focus on Vanska and Fischer first -- as well as the newest Rattles -- because I am on a "newer recordings" kick at the moment, trying to cycle more of those through my listening instead of only 40-70 yrs ago dead conductor tapes. 


**I have a few other cycles saved as full albums, too, such as Boulez, Solti Chicago, Rattle Birmingham, and the DG Bernstein. Sometimes it's just fun to organize and plan, but when it gets to out of control, I delete it all and start fresh.

[DavidW]

Playlists: Bernstein Sony, Kubelik, Rattle, Ozawa, Fischer, Chailly, Vanska**

Which Fischer?

[NumberSix]

Which Fischer?

Ivan

[DavidW]

Ivan

Nice! His M3 is my favorite M3.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

On the topic of Mahler, tangentially:

I've been part of a little YouTube podcast (#ClassicalDiscoveries) where we explore, well, music worth discovering... and I was wondering if I could show it here, to get some feedback and especially criticism (maybe a bit beyond "you guys suck", although I can see that, too) from people well into that sort of thing. And perhaps take cues as to what we should be doing and covering.

In this episode, we tackled the Mahler "Retuschen" of the Beethoven Symphonies (and Schumann, a bit), instigated by the recording on Capriccio which was a surprising success (and Hurwitz liked it a lot, also to my surprise).

(I don't quite know where to post this, without being obnoxious, but I thought this might be the right thread. I will also post our video of Miklos Rozsa "Beyond Ben Hur", Braunfels' "Jeanne d'Arc" and Schnittke ("Film Music for 'Little Tragedies'") in those composers' threads.)

Classical Discoveries - #004 Beethoven vs. Mahler - The Re-Orchestrations

[Daverz]

On the topic of Mahler, tangentially:

I've been part of a little YouTube podcast (#ClassicalDiscoveries)

Will the podcast get its own channel?

[Roasted Swan]

On the topic of Mahler, tangentially:

I've been part of a little YouTube podcast (#ClassicalDiscoveries) where we explore, well, music worth discovering... and I was wondering if I could show it here, to get some feedback and especially criticism (maybe a bit beyond "you guys suck", although I can see that, too) from people well into that sort of thing. And perhaps take cues as to what we should be doing and covering.

In this episode, we tackled the Mahler "Retuschen" of the Beethoven Symphonies (and Schumann, a bit), instigated by the recording on Capriccio which was a surprising success (and Hurwitz liked it a lot, also to my surprise).

(I don't quite know where to post this, without being obnoxious, but I thought this might be the right thread. I will also post our video of Miklos Rozsa "Beyond Ben Hur", Braunfels' "Jeanne d'Arc" and Schnittke ("Film Music for 'Little Tragedies'") in those composers' threads.)

Classical Discoveries - #004 Beethoven vs. Mahler - The Re-Orchestrations

I enjoyed this podcast and I enjoyed the release before that!  I think the key here is something you reference in the video - Mahler's aim was to balance the power and number of the enlarged string sections of the Romantic Orchestra with the extra wind and brass.  These are retouchings NOT reorchestrations.  What I found notable was how little Mahler inserts himself into the musical dialogue.  Of course, in the recording studio all of these balance adjustments can be acheived on the mixing desk - when you listen to these discs I rarely found myself thinking "goodness - all those extra horns..." or whatever.  In fact my main pleasure here is in the actual playing, the emminently sane and attractive conducting and of course the glorious music.  One aspect I did wonder about - these performances seem to follow the general modern trend towards bright tempi and quite light textures - I wonder if this is how Mahler interpreted the works or did he seek something "weightier"?