Claudio Abbado's first Mahler cycle

[Petrushka]

I love the earlier reading of the Sixth in Chicago. Just the right atmosphere and sound world in a deeper reading than Solti achieved with the same orchestra.

Pity about the weak timpani in the Abbado. I live in hope that an LSO performance given in the RFH and broadcast live on March 26 1978 will see the light of day.

[Nick Armstrong]

I haven't heard the Abbado 6 with the CSO.

You should really hear your home team in that recording, Richard. I'm with Alison - I love it and subsequent readings inc. by Abbado haven't displaced it. There's an ideal balance between structure and passion, I think - it manages to be tight and yet fiery, and something very special happens in the slow movement.

[amateur51]

You should really hear your home team in that recording, Richard. I'm with Alison - I love it and subsequent readings inc. by Abbado haven't displaced it. There's an ideal balance between structure and passion, I think - it manages to be tight and yet fiery, and something very special happens in the slow movement.

The slow movement being placed second I fervently hope

[Barbirollians]

I have rather slowly been working my way through these records . The Fourth is lovely and von Stade has the right tone and sense of wonder . The recording that has blown me away though is the Chicago second - sensational throughout with a lovely Urlicht from Marilyn Horne .

[richardfinegold]

That is the recording that I usually choose when I want to listen to the Second.. When it was first released it was notorious for having an offstage Orchestra that was inaudible, as it had been recorded at such a low level that most cartridges of the day couldn't pick up the signal. Are you listening to CD or lps?

[Barbirollians]

CD no problems with the sound !

[HighlandDougie]

When it was first released it was notorious for having an offstage Orchestra that was inaudible

The quality of the pressings of the UK release of the LPs was dire - thin vinyl, swish, read-through etc etc. That said, I almost wore my copy out (ditto the 6th when it appeared later). As for the delectable 4th, the playing of the VPO in the slow movement would make the hardest heart melt - it's almost too lovely. Reading this resurrected thread in combination with the fact that I'm going to Japan next week and that there are SHM-CD pressings available of most of these 'first cycle' recordings means that they've now been added to my already quite long Tower Records Shibuya shopping list.

[BBMmk2]

I heard a story, which is quite true, that the LSO management at the time were rather sceptical about a Mahler cycle, but Abbado, being the persuasive advocate that he was, eventually had his way and thus his first Mahler cycle.

I think it looks like a must have collection

[cloughie]

I heard a story, which is quite true, that the LSO management at the time were rather sceptical about a Mahler cycle, but Abbado, being the persuasive advocate that he was, eventually had his way and thus his first Mahler cycle.

I think it looks like a must have collection

...but not persuasive enough for the recording of an LSO cycle by DGG, using VPO and CSO in preference!
Have LSO any recordings in their vaults that could be brought out on LSO Live!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...but not persuasive enough for the recording of an LSO cycle by DGG, using VPO and CSO in preference!

- bbm will be disappointed if he expects to hear the LSO when he receives his "must have" set. No wonder the LSO management were "rather sceptical" of the expense of mounting a Live cycle that didn't also involve a recording deal.

Have LSO any recordings in their vaults that could be brought out on LSO Live!

Interesting to see how the legal wranglings would be worked out with DG if there are any archive recordings.


It's time I gave these DG recordings another listen - I was underwhelmed by them when they first appeared, much preferring the Tennstedt issues as they appeared (to say nothing of Bernstein's!) - a feeling not contradicted by the performance of the Seventh that Abbado gave with the LSO in the RFH that I attended (Cali was in the audience, too, I discovered many years later): one of the first concerts that I found deeply disappointing. And, with Abbado's Lucerne performances, this earlier set hasn't featured in my "must listen to again" list - until this Thread.

[richardfinegold]

Abbado's first Mahler Cycle is available on Spotify.

[Conchis]

His performance of the 9th symphony with the LSO was, in the opinion of many (Abbado included, I hear), far superior to his recorded version with the VPO.

There was apparently some bitterness that Abbado 'chose' to record the symphonic cycle with 'bigger name' bands; but that's record company economics, I suppose.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Abbado's first Mahler Cycle is available on Spotify.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

His performance of the 9th symphony with the LSO was, in the opinion of many (Abbado included, I hear), far superior to his recorded version with the VPO.

Yes - Abbado's live performances were generally superior to his studio work (which was another reason why I was so disappointed at the Seventh I attended - Cali, it should be said was much more impressed - as was the rest of the audience, it seems). There are bootleg recordings of the Second, Sixth and Kindertotenlieder from the mid-'60s that are astonishing in their power and energy - and the first time that the Fifth really "clicked" for me was a broadcast of Abbado conducting at a Salzburg Festival (I have a feeling that that was the BPO) from around 1982.

[HighlandDougie]

IIRC, reference has been made (by Richard Morrison in his LSO biography?? Wikipedia?) to LSO players somehow feeling "slighted" because their principal conductor chose not to record Mahler with them but was that ever very likely?

DG's recordings of him and the Chicago SO in the 2nd and the Vienna PO in the 4th were made in the 1970s before he became the LSO's principal conductor in 1979. The Mahler, Vienna and the 20th Century series wasn't until 1985, by which time he had added the 1st in Chicago (recorded around 1981), 3rd in Vienna (recorded in September 1980), 6th in Chicago (February 1980) and the 7th in Chicago (recorded in January 1984). That left the 5th, 8th and 9th. As it seems improbable that DG, even in those cash-rich days, was likely to embark on a second Abbado Mahler cycle, it is possible that they might have used LSO recordings for the remaining symphonies, which were, when eventually released, all of live recordings. Great performances as they undoubtedly were, I'm not sure that the Barbican and its pre-improvement acoustics would have provided us with as much pleasure as the Musikverein in Vienna. Precedent exists in DG using third party live recordings as the BPO 3rd stems from a BBC recording made in the RFH so something may appear in due course of the 1985 performances from an official source.

Abbado's relationship with the LSO was not always an easy one, although I think that even those players who didn't much like him all respected him as a fine musician (if he were still alive, I suspect that Richard Adeney might be seen dancing on Abbado's grave, if Adeney's autobiography is to be believed). Still, it would be good to hear some of those wonderful performances from 1985 again.