Mahler 1

[ahinton]

As have I.

(Curious factlet occurring to me from reading the Amazon reviews - the final revision of the First Symphony [which led, among other things, to a four-movement work with the only one of two exposition repeats in his symphonies, and a scherzo followed by a slow movement] occured in 1906; the same year in which Mahler made his last-known written comments on the movement order of the Sixth. Make of that what'ee will - I know I am! )

Which is "right" and which is "wrong" - "pride cometh before a fall" or "andante cometh before a scherzo"? Discuss (or rather hammer out the various arguments)...

[Barbirollians]

I played in this symphony under Dr Bruno Walter in the Royal Festival Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1955.

I think that the experience was so moving (and enlightening) that I really would have a problem listening to someone else conducting.

I wonder if there is any other message border, or musician who remembers that occasion?
It was broadcast live and I still have it recorded off air (mono) somewhere, on open reel tape

(Fischer Dieskau sang the "Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen" on the same broadcast)

HS

E and O E
..

How marvellous - there is a 1947 recording on Testament but that received lukewarm revews . It would indeed be wonderful for the recording HS played in to receive the light of day .

[makropulos]

Don't think I have heard that, but this thread led me to do a bit of searching. The most interesting result has been this ...

Which I have duly ordered from an amazon.co.uk marketplace vendor, having first sampled snippets via QOBUZ.

That looks fascinating (and thanks for drawing attention to it). I feel another order coming on :)

[Flosshilde]

Coincidentally, I've just bought (from Oxfam, for £2.99) a recording of Brunao Walter Conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the First, recorded in 1939. Haven't played it yet, so no idea what it's like.

(it's subtitled 'Titan')

[Petrushka]

I bought my very first Mahler LP 43 years ago yesterday and it was also my very first Haitink recording! It was Haitink's 1972 recording of Mahler's 1st Symphony and it completely blew me away. It is still my Mahler 1 of choice and even though I may not be the callow youth of 1973 any longer and I've heard very many recordings since, that 1972 disc (now on CD of course) still thrills me to the core. The Mahler 1 is young man's music and many of us will recognise the unrequited love that brought the work into being at a similar age to Mahler when he wrote it. I know I do.

It so happens that the Mahler 1 was on the programme of one of my very first concerts (March 7 1975, Halle Orchestra/John Pritchard) and I've heard many great ones in the concert hall since including Kubelik and the Bavarian Radio SO (1980), Solti and the Chicago SO (1978), Abbado Vienna PO (1992)and the LSO several times, Chailly and the RCO (1995), Masur and the NYPO (1995), Haitink and the LSO (1996 and 2015) and my last one MTT and the San Francisco SO (2015)

That Haitink 1972 version though is a very special disc in my life and here I am 43 years on still buying Haitink recordings as well as having Mahler discs that now number into the hundreds.

[Bryn]

That looks fascinating (and thanks for drawing attention to it). I feel another order coming on :)

While waiting for the CD to arrive I have now listened to the whole recording a couple of times in 320kbps mp3 format. The score used is clearly very different in many respects from that recorded by Wyn Morris with the New Philharmonia. As a musical performance and recording it's streets ahead. I would strongly recommend it to all those interested in Mahler's development as a composer.

[richardfinegold]

I played in this symphony under Dr Bruno Walter in the Royal Festival Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1955.

I think that the experience was so moving (and enlightening) that I really would have a problem listening to someone else conducting.

I wonder if there is any other message border, or musician who remembers that occasion?
It was broadcast live and I still have it recorded off air (mono) somewhere, on open reel tape

(Fischer Dieskau sang the "Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen" on the same broadcast)

HS

E and O E
..

Walter was my introduction to Mahler, via a recording coupling 1&2 with New York. That led me to 9. For months I didn't want to make any other comparisons. Eventually I yielded and then for whatever reason Walter fell of my radar for a while. The Sony Walter Mahler box corrected that. It features a superb mono 5th released on CD for the first time.

[richardfinegold]

I bought my very first Mahler LP 43 years ago yesterday and it was also my very first Haitink recording! It was Haitink's 1972 recording of Mahler's 1st Symphony and it completely blew me away. It is still my Mahler 1 of choice and even though I may not be the callow youth of 1973 any longer and I've heard very many recordings since, that 1972 disc (now on CD of course) still thrills me to the core. The Mahler 1 is young man's music and many of us will recognise the unrequited love that brought the work into being at a similar age to Mahler when he wrote it. I know I do.

It so happens that the Mahler 1 was on the programme of one of my very first concerts (March 7 1975, Halle Orchestra/John Pritchard) and I've heard many great ones in the concert hall since including Kubelik and the Bavarian Radio SO (1980), Solti and the Chicago SO (1978), Abbado Vienna PO (1992)and the LSO several times, Chailly and the RCO (1995), Masur and the NYPO (1995), Haitink and the LSO (1996 and 2015) and my last one MTT and the San Francisco SO (2015)

That Haitink 1972 version though is a very special disc in my life and here I am 43 years on still buying Haitink recordings as well as having Mahler discs that now number into the hundreds.

I saw Haitink lead the CSO in this a few years ago, one of the most memorable concerts of my life.

[Barbirollians]

Walter was my introduction to Mahler, via a recording coupling 1&2 with New York. That led me to 9. For months I didn't want to make any other comparisons. Eventually I yielded and then for whatever reason Walter fell of my radar for a while. The Sony Walter Mahler box corrected that. It features a superb mono 5th released on CD for the first time.

I don't think the 1947 recording was released for the first time on CD Richard - I have it in a single disc . It is marvellous as is the whole of that set barring for me the Das Lied which although OK the alto does not compare with Thorberg or Ferrier .

[duncan]

My introduction to Mahler and to live classical music was a performance of Mahler 1st at the Sydney Myer Free Concerts in Melbourne in the early or mid 1980s. I was hooked on both and I've had a particularly soft spot for his first symphony ever since. As a youth I enjoyed the all-guns-blazing Solti, Bernstein or Tennstedt; now I'm more in tune with Kubelik who seems to emphasise the Schubertian elements in this lovely work.

I don't listen to Mahler so much now. My experience has been the opposite of Clive James who said appreciation comes with age and recommended "Never be front seat passenger with a young driver who likes Mahler". That would have been good advice with me but probably nothing to do with my taste in music.

[Bryn]

The CD of the Hengelbrock recording of the 1893 version of 'Titan' has arrived. Reading the programme notes led me to search out more information of the 1889 Budapest version. The main upshot of which search was this pair of YouTube uploads of a performance of the three surviving movements of the Budapest version supplemented with the Blumine and 'Bruder Jakob' movements from the 1893 Hamburg version:

Part one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uJnc5lYx6E

Part two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjh2pucllRQ&feature=related

256kbps mp3 downloads are available, free of charge, from http://necmusic.edu/first-mahler , though you do have to sign up.

[Richard Barrett]

I heard Mahler 1 yet again yesterday evening (Belgrade Philharmonic with Vladimir Kulenović). The more I hear it the more I like it. This may not have been the best performance I've ever seen (though on the other hand it may have been) but it was the one in which I experienced everything fitting together to make a massive but coherent whole. Previously I've often had a problem with the finale seeming to be stitched together without the structural skills that Mahler later developed. but not this time. I think it has a lot to do with thinking of tempo choices in the context of the whole symphony and not only locally.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The CD of the Hengelbrock recording of the 1893 version of 'Titan' has arrived. Reading the programme notes led me to search out more information of the 1889 Budapest version. The main upshot of which search was this pair of YouTube uploads of a performance of the three surviving movements of the Budapest version supplemented with the Blumine and 'Bruder Jakob' movements from the 1893 Hamburg version:
Part one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uJnc5lYx6E

Part two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjh2pucllRQ&feature=related

256kbps mp3 downloads are available, free of charge, from http://necmusic.edu/first-mahler , though you do have to sign up.

Many thanks for this, Bryn - my own copy also arrived yesterday, and, from a run-through to check the disc wasn't flawed, I was attracted by the brisk, "youthful"* approach and tantalised by the frequent "tweaks" in my expectations. Damn good recorded sound, too - highly recommended: demonstrated that the earlier version is completely successful in its own terms.

[Bryn]

... my own copy also arrived yesterday, and, from a run-through to check the disc wasn't flawed, I was attracted by the brisk, "youthful"* approach and tantalised by the frequent "tweaks" in my expectations. Damn good recorded sound, too - highly recommended: demonstrated that the earlier version is completely successful in its own terms.

The NEC/Wolff mp3s indirectly linked to in #56 are well worth downloading. Fine recording for a live performance. The Finale has the most differences from later versions. The trumpet solo in Blumine is beautifully played and the orchestra executes the Mahlerian portamenti with great elan.

[Beef Oven!]

The NEC/Wolff mp3s indirectly linked to in #56 are well worth downloading. Fine recording for a live performance. The Finale has the most differences from later versions. The trumpet solo in Blumine is beautifully played and the orchestra executes the Mahlerian portamenti with great elan.

Many thanks indeed Bryn

Downloaded and already into the second movement!