The Best Mahler 3?

[Mandryka]

I've been listening to this one a lot recently: it's nudging its way to the top of my list of favoured Mahler symphonies.

These are the recordings I own:

Bernstein (1961/1987)

Haitink (1966)

Tennestedt (1979)

Solti (1984)

Bertini (1980s)

I've just ordered Abbado's recent (ish) BPO recording, too.


Which recording do you rate highest, of these or others?

[Thropplenoggin]

I've been listening to this one a lot recently: it's nudging its way to the top of my list of favoured Mahler symphonies.

These are the recordings I own:

Bernstein (1961/1987)

Haitink (1966)

Tennestedt (1979)

Solti (1984)

Bertini (1980s)

I've just ordered Abbado's recent (ish) BPO recording, too.


Which recording do you rate highest, of these or others?

You could try something with updated sonic clarity, always important in listening to Mahler recordings. Jonathan Nott on Tudor was very well received, gaining an Editor's Choice (Gramophone) and Orchestral Choice (BBC Music Magazine). I expect Ivan Fischer's will be worth the wait (his Mahler 4 is a must-purchase, exquisite played and relayed in gorgeous clarity) when it eventually arrives.

[John Shelton]

Jonathan Nott on Tudor was very well received, gaining an Editor's Choice (Gramophone) and Orchestral Choice (BBC Music Magazine).

It's excellent (IMO).

[Parry1912]

Chailly's was the BAL choice in 2007 by Edward Seckerson.

Horenstein's if often mentioned on these boards although, sadly, I've yet to hear it.

[Thropplenoggin]

Chailly's was the BAL choice in 2007 by Edward Seckerson.

Horenstein's if often mentioned on these boards although, sadly, I've yet to hear it.

It's available for download here: http://www.theclassicalshop.net/Deta...mber=UK%202006 and on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoJHmLPZO9k

[amateur51]

It's worth listening to the two extant recordings conducted by Dmitri Mitropoulos with NYPO/ Cologne Radio symphony Orchestra.

They're both cut a bit and the sound is nowhere near modern standards but there is tremendous intensity & commitment to these performances, particularly in the final movements which I find awe-inspiring and just right in my opinion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS0Zh1yDfMY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIBGKjy1P80

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Bernstein NYPO (Sony) and Horenstein LSO are pretty special. I've seen nothing but praise for the Nott, but haven't yet heard it.

[John Shelton]

Bernstein NYPO (Sony) and Horenstein LSO are pretty special. I've seen nothing but praise for the Nott, but haven't yet heard it.

The Nott is excellent (I've liked all his Mahler I've heard but in some way his preparedness to allow the music to take its own course without imposing an anticipatory logic works especially well in the 3rd. I realise as a description of anything to do with the performance that is well below next to useless ).

Chailly's recording I remember as impressive (wonderfully played). His is about my favourite recording of the 4th, though I don't think it gets much of a mention. Perversely I've never heard either that Bernstein or the Horenstein recording of 3.

[HighlandDougie]

I somehow have accumulated 18 recordings of this symphony (from Charles Adler through to Jonathan Nott). I would hate to be without Kubelik, Bertini, Chailly, Abbado (x3) or Nott - and i would be loath to abandon Horenstein, although re-listening to it again recently after a long time, it was less impressive than I had remembered. Not a lot to choose between Chailly and Nott recording quality-wise and, if I'd save the Nott if the house was on fire, that's my preference for the sound of his orchestra(s) and, as Hey Nonymous puts it well, his willingness to let the music unfold.

If we're allowed Blu-Rays, the Lucerne/Abbado performance, with Anna Larsson as a wonderful soloist, is better played/recorded than either of his VPO/BPO recordings and is both deeply involving (and moving) as well as having the most radiant of endings. When I want to listen to the symphony these days, it's the version to which I return, along with the Nott. I'd very much like to hear the Gielen as I imagine that this symphony would suit well his approach to Mahler. Oddly, given the number of performers required, it's the Mahler symphony I've heard most often in the flesh - Abbado unforgettably and Anna Larsson quite outstanding with Mariss Jansons a couple of years ago in Edinburgh.

[teamsaint]

The amount of time required to do justice to 18 versions of this incredible work is a testament to your stamina HD,

Incidentally, and operating at a basic level, in a work like this, the quality/style of the solo singers is a critical thing for me.

[mathias broucek]

Mandryka's original list + Mitropoulos is a pretty good sample.

I would add Levine. He'd not normally my favourite conductor but there's something very "right" about his finale in this work

[Richard Tarleton]

Just 2 recorded versions - Haitink 1966 (still on LP) and the Haitink 1990 BPO/Jard van Nes - bought in the wake of hearing Haitink/BPO perform it at the Barbican with the marvellous Anna Larsen. My live experience of this work is entirely Haitink-based - also two superb Haitink/LPO RFH perfs in the 1970s. So, erm, it's Haitink for me.

[Keraulophone]

There's something very special about the LSO / Horenstein recording, including an almost spiritual intensity in the final movement; he refuses to rush at the very end, when some conductors cannot resist applying superficial heat. Lucerne /Abbado, Chicago / Abbado and New York /Bernstein are also very fine in their own way. Haitink at the Proms some 30 years ago, [was it?] with the Philharmonia was also pretty special.

[Bryn]

Michael Gielen:

[amateur51]

Michael Gielen:

I've just noticed how much like Michael Gielen that portrait of Gustav Mahler is