Mahler Mania, Rebooted

[Pat B]

A couple of years ago, somebody started a blind comparison of the 2nd with "Urlicht" then left the forum before identifying most of the contenders. (He did identify the one that I and the group liked least, Bernstein on DG.) I eventually determined my favorite from that slate to be the critically-disdained Jansons in Oslo on Chandos, and bought that. But at both ends my judgement was primarily about the style of the alto, not necessarily representative of the overall performance.

I currently own 7 versions and have heard a few more, but TBH I'd have trouble, without resorting to head-to-head comparisons, putting any of them in front of the others. (That's somewhat unusual for me.)

In case anyone cares, my inventory is:
Mehta on Decca (my first)
Klemperer studio on EMI
Bernstein on Sony
Bernstein video
Walter on Sony
Kaplan with LSO
Jansons on Chandos

EDIT: I wrote this before ørfeo posted his comment. But I was in a different listening group.

[North Star]

I can heartily second the Boulez and Gielen from Jens' list. I also have Klemperer's recording, which I haven't heard in a long time, but also recall liking. The Boulez and Gielen have better sound quality, the Boulez fits on a single disc, but the Gielen has marvelous fillers in Kurtág's Stele and Schoenberg's Kol Nidre..

[Sergeant Rock]

1. Pierre Boulez, WPh, DG

I like the Boulez too. A good choice for an introduction to this marvelous symphony. Consider also Kaplan/Vienna.

My other favorites are too individual (i.e., mannered) to recommend so I won't bother listing them.

Sarge

[Parsifal]

I like the Boulez too. A good choice for an introduction to this marvelous symphony. Consider also Kaplan/Vienna.

My other favorites are too individual (i.e., mannered) to recommend so I won't bother listing them.

Sarge

Boulez, Meh. Nobody mentioned my favorite:

[Sergeant Rock]

Boulez, Meh. Nobody mentioned my favorite:

That's mine too, but like I said, I wouldn't recommend it for a first experience.

Sarge

[Parsifal]

That's mine too, but like I said, I wouldn't recommend it for a first experience.

Sarge

It was my first experience, didn't do me any harm. 

(I got mine before they invented the double jewel case, so it came in two separate jewel cases.)

[Sergeant Rock]

It was my first experience, didn't do me any harm. 

That's debatable 

Sarge

[Parsifal]

That's debatable 

Sarge

[relm1]

That's mine too, but like I said, I wouldn't recommend it for a first experience.

Sarge

Explain sarge.

[relm1]

One thing I find extremely interesting, the consensus seems to be a Mahler 2 virgin should get a different version than a Mahlerian.  I am very curious for more details about this.  I consider myself an expert (I have performed it and own 11 recordings and it was the first professional concert I ever attended) but find no single recording to fulfill my imagination of the work.  Though I have heard it a bazillian times, I must confess still tearing up at hearing it this morning.  Though the performances I heard left me lacking. What a fantastic work.

[kishnevi]

Of forty plus recordings I have there are three I dislike: Norrington, Abbado/VPO, and Abbado/Lucerne. My top favorites are Bernstein/DG, MTT/SFO, and Abbado/CSO. For a newbie, I would suggest Mehta/VPO, Kaplan/VPO or even better, a DVD--Chailly/Gewandhaus.

But other than those three I specified above, there is not an M2 I would not gladly listen to, and that does not give me an emotional uprush when the chorus kicks in.

[brunumb]

This is the recording that started my Mahler addiction:

[Pat B]

One thing I find extremely interesting, the consensus seems to be a Mahler 2 virgin should get a different version than a Mahlerian.

I think the idea is to avoid causing someone to imprint on an idiosyncratic or controversial version. For example, my first version of Beethoven 4 was Leinsdorf, which is mostly fine, but he changes the rhythm at the first Allegro vivace, and it took me a long time to accept the correct rhythm. I haven't heard Maazel's Mahler 2 but I suspect he takes some part of it unusually slowly, or made some other love-it-or-hate-it interpretive decision.

[André]

True. Listening to the 6th symphony in Barbirolli's version would have that same effect on a newcomer.

[Parsifal]

One thing I find extremely interesting, the consensus seems to be a Mahler 2 virgin should get a different version than a Mahlerian.  I am very curious for more details about this.  I consider myself an expert (I have performed it and own 11 recordings and it was the first professional concert I ever attended) but find no single recording to fulfill my imagination of the work.  Though I have heard it a bazillian times, I must confess still tearing up at hearing it this morning.  Though the performances I heard left me lacking. What a fantastic work.

I'm not so sure I agree, but the rational may be that a newbie would benefit from a mainstream performance but someone that already has several recordings of the work would gain more by getting an oddball recording.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

One thing I find extremely interesting, the consensus seems to be a Mahler 2 virgin should get a different version than a Mahlerian.  I am very curious for more details about this.  I consider myself an expert (I have performed it and own 11 recordings and it was the first professional concert I ever attended) but find no single recording to fulfill my imagination of the work.  Though I have heard it a bazillian times, I must confess still tearing up at hearing it this morning.  Though the performances I heard left me lacking. What a fantastic work.

Maybe there's something to it: That someone who knows the work well can appreciate deviation from it better... or at least knows not to be mislead by it.
Sometimes I think an interpretation is very suitable for a beginner, because it allows a particular insight that helps. If you had asked about M3 and I had answered with Boulez again, that would have been such a case... because in the Third Boulez lives up to the stereotype and delivers a see-through account; accurate and transparent like few others. But usually Boulez's Mahler is quite passionate and searing, actually. (Only his 8th is a dead-on-arrival-dud.) Point being that, in this case, I should like to point out that my recommendations were straight up; I think these are among the very best recordings of the work for veteran and newbie alike.


Meanwhile I agree w/Jeffrey's dislike for Abbado/Vienna, though not Abbado/Lucerne; Maazel is one of the few cycles I don't have; I dislike the Solti (most of Solti's Mahler, actually, except his Sixth, which Sarge thankfully converted me to!

[Jo498]

I think the idea is to avoid causing someone to imprint on an idiosyncratic or controversial version.

Sure, but this seems in no way special about Mahler or a particular symphony of his.

[bwv 1080]

What is your favorite recording of Mahler's No. 2?  Basically if you were going to introduce someone to this work which recording would you demonstrate the work with?

Kubelik

[Pat B]

Sure, but this seems in no way special about Mahler or a particular symphony of his.

It isn't.

[aukhawk]

... There was a blind listening a few years ago that never got completed, and so I have a 1st movement that I know I really enjoyed but no idea who the conductor and orchestra were.

Me too!  It was P3 in my case.  I still listen to it and prefer it to any other I've heard so far, with the exception of Bernstein/DG (which is similar, but even more over-wrought).  I never listen past the 1st movement anyway, it stands alone very well IMHO.