Unfashionable records that you love

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But whose pooh-poohing are we pooh-poohing, you two?

[visualnickmos]

Music must be the only field of human activity wherein anoraks can be considered 'fashion!'

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't think anyone's pooh-poohing here, but the whole raison d'etre (sorry for the lack of accent) for this thread is the perception that people do poo(h)-poo(h) these amazing performances.

[verismissimo]

Bernstein's VPO Mozart is b****y brilliant!...

No, no, no, vissy. It's his Haydn!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No, no, no

Yes, yes, yes

It's his Haydn!

Too, too, too.

[visualnickmos]

Yes, yes, yes


Too, too, too.

Both, both, both, - surely!

(and his Schumann, for good measure )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Both, both, both, - surely!

True, true, true.

(But "both, both, both" doesn't rhyme with "pooh-pooh")

(and his Schumann, for good measure )

I don't know anything that he recorded for CBS with the NYPO that isn't pretty damn fine

[visualnickmos]

I don't know anything that he recorded for CBS with the NYPO that isn't pretty damn fine

The best complete Mahler symphonies by a country mile.....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The best complete Mahler symphonies by a country mile.....

Do I agree? I do, I do, I do!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Do I agree? I do, I do, I do!

Go, go, go, Ferney.

[gurnemanz]

The best complete Mahler symphonies by a country mile.....

Of course, Mahler was music director at NYPO, and as was his protégé, Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein was Walter's assistant.

[visualnickmos]

Of course, Mahler was music director at NYPO, and as was his protégé, Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein was Walter's assistant.

You know what they say; "every little helps!"

[makropulos]

Of course, Mahler was music director at NYPO, and as was his protégé, Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein was Walter's assistant.

There's a link through the NYP, certainly, but:
Walter was only Music Director of the NYP from 1947 to 1949, despite conducting a lot of Mahler with them before and after that time as a revered guest conductor.
Bernstein was Assistant Conductor to Rodzinski at the NYP in 1943, but he became Music Director of the NY City SO and never worked as Bruno Walter's assistant. Bernstein's earliest Mahler performances with with the NY City SO and as a guest with the Boston SO (among others) in the 1940s.
So yes, both were magnificent Mahler conductors and both worked in New York - as had Mahler - but there's not quite the neat master-pupil succession that you describe..

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Pretty well all of Sir Thomas Beecham's MOZART recordings.
Has any other conductor ever phrased, shaped and generally caressed the exquisite slow movement of Symphony 34 in C with such tender, loving care?

Having just acquired this recording (on your recommendation, Tony, as well as Don Petter's info) I can only agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of that slow movement. interesting, Beecham uses solo strings for the second subject - something I haven't heard elsewhere, but it works well.

[richardfinegold]

There's a link through the NYP, certainly, but:
Walter was only Music Director of the NYP from 1947 to 1949, despite conducting a lot of Mahler with them before and after that time as a revered guest conductor.
Bernstein was Assistant Conductor to Rodzinski at the NYP in 1943, but he became Music Director of the NY City SO and never worked as Bruno Walter's assistant. Bernstein's earliest Mahler performances with with the NY City SO and as a guest with the Boston SO (among others) in the 1940s.
So yes, both were magnificent Mahler conductors and both worked in New York - as had Mahler - but there's not quite the neat master-pupil succession that you describe..

Bernstein's publicists would go on to imply that Lenny resurrected Mahler from oblivion single handedly, and discount the other Conductors who kept Mahler before the public. In New York, there was a more direct link for Lenny than Walter...namely Mitropolous, his immediate predecessor at the NY Phil, who frequently programed Mahler, and who Lenny missed no chance to undermine. And of course there was Horenstein, Klemperer, Scherchen, and even Ormandy that programmed Mahler before Lenny.
On the positive side, it is remarkable how well Bernstein's 1960s Mahler recordings stand up today. They were laid down at a time when most of the Musicians and the Public had no significant Mahler tradition, and if I had to pick just one Mahler cycle for the desert Isle, this would be the one.