The Best Mahler 3?

[BBMmk2]

I'm already hoplessly intoxicated. How is the M6 arrangement going, bbm?

Apologies for not writing to you sooner, RFG. I hope to finish the draft score next month sometime. I hope to add the piano and glockenspiel as well to replace the harp and celeste but the h o f has said they do have a celeste~!!

[richardfinegold]

Apologies for not writing to you sooner, RFG. I hope to finish the draft score next month sometime. I hope to add the piano and glockenspiel as well to replace the harp and celeste but the h o f has said they do have a celeste~!!

Keep plugging away

[Nick Armstrong]

I have today acquired (as a result of a conversation elsewhere about album covers) a second-hand copy of the Levine / Chicago recording of Mahler 3. It's the first recording I ever heard, in my university room c 1981 on cassette borrowed from the local library... For some reason I've never owned it, as Haitink, Tennstedt, Abbado, Bernstein muscled in (and were I think easier to get hold of on CD).

The Levine is ABSOLUTELY TREMENDOUS and I think may be my favourite recorded performance. (I see it was singled out in #11 of this merged thread, by mathias broucek, and a few others mention it in passing).

It probably also merits a mention in the 'Best Recorded Mahler' thread too...


Oh ... and that album cover? Maurice Sendak:

[richardfinegold]

I have today acquired (as a result of a conversation elsewhere about album covers) a second-hand copy of the Levine / Chicago recording of Mahler 3. It's the first recording I ever heard, in my university room c 1981 on cassette borrowed from the local library... For some reason I've never owned it, as Haitink, Tennstedt, Abbado, Bernstein muscled in (and were I think easier to get hold of on CD).

The Levine is ABSOLUTELY TREMENDOUS and I think may be my favourite recorded performance. (I see it was singled out in #11 of this merged thread, by mathias broucek, and a few others mention it in passing).

It probably also merits a mention in the 'Best Recorded Mahler' thread too...


Oh ... and that album cover? Maurice Sendak:

That's the recording that I learned the piece from. The vinyl was horribly compromised by the terrible surfaces that RCA was afflicted with in that time period, and it took the CD incarnation to really show what a great recording it was. Solti's Orchestra through the more poetic lens of a young Levine, and thrillingly recorded.

[Conchis]

That's the recording that I learned the piece from. The vinyl was horribly compromised by the terrible surfaces that RCA was afflicted with in that time period, and it took the CD incarnation to really show what a great recording it was. Solti's Orchestra through the more poetic lens of a young Levine, and thrillingly recorded.

Always wondered why Levine never completed this cycle? Anyone know?

[HighlandDougie]

Always wondered why Levine never completed this cycle? Anyone know?

I always assumed that RCA might have baulked at the cost of doing so. Levine certainly performed the 8th with the Chicago SO (there is a bootleg of a Ravinia performance from, I think, 1973). However, if anyone does want to hear him conduct it in OK sound, the Boston SO will sell you a download from Tanglewood of a 2005 performance - with Ameriques thrown in for good measure.

The missing 2nd is available with Levine conducting the Israel PO or, in much better sound, a thrilling performance from the 1989 Salzburg Festival on Orfeo.

[ostuni]

I was curious about this Levine M3, and looked up a few reviews. The finale looks much slower than the norm (around 28'; the ones in my collection run from 22 - 25) - does it work?

[Conchis]

I always assumed that RCA might have baulked at the cost of doing so. Levine certainly performed the 8th with the Chicago SO (there is a bootleg of a Ravinia performance from, I think, 1973). However, if anyone does want to hear him conduct it in OK sound, the Boston SO will sell you a download from Tanglewood of a 2005 performance - with Ameriques thrown in for good measure.

The missing 2nd is available with Levine conducting the Israel PO or, in much better sound, a thrilling performance from the 1989 Salzburg Festival on Orfeo.

Not sure about this. The 70s/80s was a time when symphony cycles were big and Levine was a hot new name.

[HighlandDougie]

I can't think of any other reason beyond RCA A&R deciding that it would lose them too much money. Both symphonies were in Levine's repertoire. In the case of the 8th, performances which have appeared on record/CD have often been of live performances, although others, notably Solti, Haitink and Kubelik, were made in the studio (with the Solti coinciding with performances by the CSO in Vienna). Part of Levine's 1979 Ravinia 8th was issued by the CSO as part of its 100th Anniversary box so one might wonder why RCA either didn't license that recording or make its own studio recording at that time. Maybe someone should ask James Levine.

[mahlerei]

i was always under the impression that Levine's commitments at the Met was the reason his Mahler cycle was never completed. Also, he started recording for DG as well, so there may have been contractual issues. But, most of all, I had the sense that this was an ad hoc enterprise rather than a properly planned cycle.

[Barbirollians]

i was always under the impression that Levine's commitments at the Met was the reason his Mahler cycle was never completed. Also, he started recording for DG as well, so there may have been contractual issues. But, most of all, I had the sense that this was an ad hoc enterprise rather than a properly planned cycle.

DG also had lots of other Mahler recordings on the go - Abbado , the later Bernstein , HVK's conversion to some Mahler etc .

[Conchis]

i was always under the impression that Levine's commitments at the Met was the reason his Mahler cycle was never completed. Also, he started recording for DG as well, so there may have been contractual issues. But, most of all, I had the sense that this was an ad hoc enterprise rather than a properly planned cycle.

This I can believe - the range and scope of Levine's recording/conducting/opera commitments back then seem mind-boggling now. I sometimes think he must be the 3rd most recorded conductor of all time (behind HvK and Ormandy).

[Barbirollians]

I have finally got round to listening to the LSO/Horenstein Mahler 3 - it is rather wonderful with a first movement of superb contrasts .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I have finally got round to listening to the LSO/Horenstein Mahler 3 - it is rather wonderful with a first movement of superb contrasts .

It is, indeed. There is a story (I don't know how/if accurate) that at the start of one of the recording sessions, Deryck Cooke brought the news that Barbirolli had died overnight, and that Horenstein decided to record the last Movement as tribute.

[BBMmk2]

Heard the Bernstein/NYPO/DG MaHLER 3! Wow!