| His time has come! (review from amazon.com) |
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This recording finds Bernstein (49) in good musical shape and the summit of his maturity. Besides the New York Philharmonic with his accustomed excellence (these horns and winds!) joined efforts and recorded the whole cycle of Mahler's symphonies.
Those admirable concepts exposed by Bernstein deserve be partially reproduced:" Has come?. Had come, rather: was there all along, even as each bar of each Symphony was being pin that special psychic fluid of his. If ever there was a composer of his time it was Mahler, prophetic only in the sense that he already knew what the world would come to know and admit half a century later.
Basically of course, all of Mahler's music is about Mahler-which means simply that is about conflict. Think of it: Mahler the Creator vs. Mahler the Performer; the Jew vs. the Christian; the Believer vs. the Doubter; the Naif vs. the sophisticate; the provincial Bohemian vs. the Viennese homme du monde; the Faustian Philosopher vs. the oriental Mystic; the Operatic Symphonist who never wrote an opera. But mainly the battle rages between Western Man and the turn of the century and the life of the spirit. Out of this opposition proceeds the endless list of antitheses-the whole roster of yang and Yin-that inhabit Mahler's music..."
Despite some passages are extremely fast Bernstein recorded the most Post Romantic version I ever know around this colossal page.
This version lacks the somber vision of Horenstein or the bitterness of Scherchen. As the great composers, Gustav admits several and even different readings.
If you are initiating in Mahler's universe, start with this version. If not go for this one because it is a historic issue, far beyond you are absolutely agree or not with this vision. Strongly recommended.
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| almost (review from amazon.com) |
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| while this SACD is incredibly impressive in passages, others fall so far short, that i sold the disc. the tempos are quite different than one would expect, but in places they are pulled of nicely. however in others, the tempo appears too fast and the orchestra is out of sinc, causing the dramatic effect to be lost. perhaps worst of all is the incredibly out of tune clarinet in the last movement that distracts so much from the performance, that i couldn't get back into the piece. overall this is a good recording, but in comparison to others by Tilson-Thomas, Kleiber, or Solti, this is not good enough.
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| Major Disappointment (review from amazon.com) |
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| Need I say more. I have several ordinary Cds that sound much better than this.I was under the impression that this was a 6 channel recording since Bernstein had made a few Quad recordings in this era with this orchestra. I will have to read the fine print much closer in the future.
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| Mahler "Titan" (review from amazon.com) |
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| This performance remains one of the most thrilling and committed performances of "The Titan" to be issued. The DSD/SACD remastering is excellent I look forward to the entire Sony cycle in this wonderful new format.
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| Mahler 1 (review from amazon.com) |
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| Mahler 1 is arguably one of the best Mahler symphonies. One can clearly see why from Bernstein's incredible interpretation of Mahler's genius on this cd. The tempos are excellent- roaring in the last movement, tedious in the third. As usual, Bernstein gives us what we want in a recording.
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