[dshea_32665]

Great news about the Rattle recording!! I don't own a Mahler 8 and I am a big fan of Rattle's.

Hey I was ripping more CDs from my collection and came across a CD I bought for a Mahler seminar I took in graduate school. It is Barenboim/Fischer-Dieskau doing Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. For those of you who haven't listened to his vocal music, some of the material from the First symphony was taken from the Lieder. This recording is beautiful. Great sound. Fischer-Dieskau is the man for baritone lieder and he doesn't disappoint on this recording. I am much more an instrumental music lover than vocal, but some of these late romantic recordings with voice are stunning. Anyway, I highly recommend this CD if you are looking to expand from the symphonies.

dshea

 

[scottder]

Thanks dshea_32665,

I'm in the Market for a Das Lied von der Erde, I picked the Ferrirer/Walter from DG recently, but haven't listened to it yet.

Scott

 

[DarkAngel]

Levi/Telarc M6 (warning!)
I found used version of this for $5 so I gave it a shot even though I wasn't really impressed with Levi M2 or M4......but again all the glowing hyped reviews had me curious.
Levi M6 Review

The performance I found lacking and just average in most respects, first two movements fare best then downhill from there. Has the typical house sound for Telarc.....very smooth soft treble with exaggerated bass and tremendous dynamic range. I failed to notice warning in small print about two hammer blows in 4th movement, OMG when the first one hit I though for sure my speakers would be damaged! I have never seen the speaker cones physically move that much, actually though it makes me mad that Telarc would make a CD that "could" damage your speakers and then put some tiny disclaimer in small print to warn you which no one will see till after the damage is done.

Abbado/DG/CSO M2,M4
Since I didn't care for newest live version of Abbado/DG M2 I took advantage of Tower's 25% sale to get older 2CD Abbado M2 with CSO, will report more when I have sampled this.

 

[scottder]

With a B&N gift cert burning a hole in my pocket, I picked up the DG Panaorama Set of Bernstein's 1 & 5. Have yet to give it a spin yet.

 

[DarkAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottder With a B&N gift cert burning a hole in my pocket, I picked up the DG Panaorama Set of Bernstein's 1 & 5. Have yet to give it a spin yet.

Very nice......those are two classics for price of one new CD!

 

[dshea_32665]

I received my Mahler 2/Litton for Christmas. Wow fantastic recording. I haven't had the chance to really compare it to anything, but I will try and do it (any recommendations for a comparison recording?). It just sounded right from beginning to end, great sound, pacing/musicality right on.

Of course my experience was enhanced greatly by my new HD650/zu combination (even with only 40 hours burn in time). Another thread.

I was disappointed my Szell/Mahler 6 was not under the tree so that will be purchased along with some of the others on the DA Dream list.

I listened to Mahler 4/Szell through my new headphones and I must say this is one of my votes for all time great CDs. I was burning my phones in and wasn't really going to listen yesterday afternoon, but I put them on just as Mahler 4 was starting. I was hooked and had to sit down for the whole performance. The better your equipment gets the more engaging these recordings become. Anyway, just thought I would express my enthusiasm to those who can relate.

Cheers,
dshea

 

[DarkAngel]

Yes the Litton M2 is a Delos label recording, and they make wonderfully realistic sounding CDs......also available as SACD. This is in my top 5 M2 versions for sure.

I have the Senn 650/Zu headphone set-up also but do almost 100% of my classical listening on stereo. The Szell/Sony M4 is probably my reference recording for this work, hard to choose so many great ones......definitely top 3.

Dshea makes good haul for Xmas.

 

[Bill Ward]

And just to chime in, I picked up a copy of the Mahler 2,Mehta/VPO on London. It came in a double CD set paired, oddly, with the Schmidt Symphony No. 4. I like the performance very much. Sound quality is remarkable for its age, and the choral close thunders splendidly. When I have the time I want to do some comparisons.

BW

 

[scottder]

The Szell 4th is an amazing CD, and on a budget CD no less.

Hmm have yet to hear any Mehta. Argh...these threads cost me too much money!

Scott

 

[DarkAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Ward And just to chime in, I picked up a copy of the Mahler 2,Mehta/VPO on London. It came in a double CD set paired, oddly, with the Schmidt Symphony No. 4. I like the performance very much. Sound quality is remarkable for its age, and the choral close thunders splendidly. When I have the time I want to do some comparisons. BW

It is very good performance that often gets lost in the shuffle, also available as 1CD mid price remastered Decca Legends which is probably even better sound:

Mehta M2

 

[Bill Ward]

Any opinions of other Mehta/Mahler performances?

BW

 

[Masonjar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottder With a B&N gift cert burning a hole in my pocket, I picked up the DG Panaorama Set of Bernstein's 1 & 5. Have yet to give it a spin yet.

Me too.. $50.. what to buy what to buy.. I went through EVERY Bruckner and Mahler cd they had on their website, and couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on anything..yet.. actually I have my eye on a mid-price Shostakovich 5th by Skrowaczewski.. I love old Stanislaw, that guy just doesn't seem to make bad recordings..

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/sear...fApV&WRK=15818

My "list" is over $100 dollars.. trying to whittle it down to about $60.

 

[Masonjar]

Ok, I just ordered the Oleg Caetani Mahler 2nd on the Arts Label through B&N. Don't know if I otherwise would have ever bought it considering it costs $28.. but since I had a gift cert, it didn't hurt at all. Dustychalk told me about this one a long time ago, I'm very curious to finally hear it.

I also ordered that Skrowaczeski Shostakovich 5th. For $7, it kind of balances out the Mahler.

Anyone else around here heard that Caetani Mahler 2?

-jar

 

[jamont]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Ward Any opinions of other Mehta/Mahler performances? BW

There is a nice Mahler 3rd, with the LA Phil, recorded in the 70's, excellent sound quality. There is also a fine recording of the 5th, made with the NY Phil, around 1990 or so, for Teldec (this may be hard to find now).

Actually, Mehta made several other recordings for Teldec, just before the end of his tenure at the NY Phil, and they were all pretty good. They were made at Manhattan Center, produced by Max Rudolf, and the sound is excellent. In addition to the Mahler 5, there wes IIRC a Sibelius 2, Holst's Planets, and a Sacre du Printemps, all worth hearing.

 

[Pars]

Wow! I have been missing some things just hanging in the DIY forum. Some interesting recommendations that I will need to listen to (and get).
Most of my Mahler recordings are older, but some favorites:

3rd: Levine/CSO. This one is on vinyl, not sure if you can get it on CD. Good performance, but I haven't really compared it to many other versions.

2nd: I still really like the Abbado/CSO recording (late 70s/80s) much better than the Solti.

8th: Solti/CSO 1971 recording. I just noticed that on CD I have both the 2 disc set and the Legends remastered version. IIRC, I think the remastered version has better sound and is cheaper to boot. Need to take a listen (been awhile). I would really love to see a XRCD of this if they could work with the master tapes.

I need to listen to the SFO/MTT recordings.