Mahler cycle - Gielen

[Karafan]

I am currently being tempted by the Mahler cycle with Gielen on Haenssler. Does anybody have it and can comment on it please? Comments on the individual symphonies also welcome.

K.

[Thropplenoggin]

I am currently being tempted by the Mahler cycle with Gielen on Haenssler. Does anybody have it and can comment on it please? Comments on the individual symphonies also welcome.

K.

I expect Bryn's your man for this, K.

[Roehre]

I am currently being tempted by the Mahler cycle with Gielen on Haenssler. Does anybody have it and can comment on it please? Comments on the individual symphonies also welcome.

K.

I guess I agree with the critics this may be a cycle which comes nearest to the ideal one, in terms of interpretation, solosits as well as recording.
I must say that -when I got through this cycle recently- there is much to say for this opinion.
However, I do think that the solist in 4 is a mis-match. Interpretatively Gielen is ountstanding in all symphonies: many details which one reads in the score are actually audible, clear lines, beautifully (or very sensibly) phrased define the performances.
The recordings are chrystal clear.
My experience is, that the latter makes listening to the cycle in "one go", i.e. within a short space of time, exhausting, challenging. But sipped bit by bit it's n IMO very recommendable cycle.

[Bryn]

It really pains me to express this view, but for once the often deluded David Hurwitz (he who does not seem to know his vibrato from his fluttertongue) gets it about spot on, i.e. 10 out of 10 for both performance and recording. It was the spinning by Rob Cowan (on the much lamented CD Masters) of, and strong advocacy for, Gielen's recording of the 3rd that was the fillip that prompted my getting the main set some years ago. Since then I have added his later recorded performance of a Cooke performing version of the sketches for the 10th (Gielen originally stuck to just the Krenek et al edition of the first movement but was later won over by Cooke's work on the sketches). There is also a CD of Das Lied von der Erde culled from two different performances recorded a decade apart! It is, nonetheless, well worth hearing (oh, and an earlier recording of the 8th on Sony).

Sorry, I am both too tired and otherwise ill-equipped to offer a blow-by-blow account of why I find this survey so compelling. I'll just say that while closely observing the composer's detailed nuanced directions in the scores, Gielen gives voice to the poetry at the heart of Mahler's muse. There are other individual recordings of most of the symphonies which I hold in slightly higher regard, but if I had to choose but one conductor's survey of Mahler's symphonic output, it would be that from Gielen. Just hear that night bird cry out in the 3rd, for instance. As I mentioned earlier, my one regret in getting the set was that I thereby missed out on the 'fill-ups' found on the issues of the individual symphonies. I do hope those 'fill-ups' get released separately at some point.

[mathias broucek]

It really pains me to express this view, but for once the often deluded David Hurwitz (he who does not seem to know his vibrato from his fluttertongue) gets it about spot on, i.e. 10 out of 10 for both performance and recording. It was the spinning by Rob Cowan (on the much lamented CD Masters) of, and strong advocacy for, Gielen's recording of the 3rd that was the fillip that prompted my getting the main set some years ago. Since then I have added his later recorded performance of a Cooke performing version of the sketches for the 10th (Gielen originally stuck to just the Krenek et al edition of the first movement but was later won over by Cooke's work on the sketches). There is also a CD of Das Lied von der Erde culled from two different performances recorded a decade apart! It is, nonetheless, well worth hearing (oh, and an earlier recording of the 8th on Sony).

Sorry, I am both too tired and otherwise ill-equipped to offer a blow-by-blow account of why I find this survey so compelling. I'll just say that while closely observing the composer's detailed nuanced directions in the scores, Gielen gives voice to the poetry at the heart of Mahler's muse. There are other individual recordings of most of the symphonies which I hold is slightly higher regard, but if I had to choose but one conductor's survey of Mahler's symphonic output, it would be that from Gielen. Just hear that night bird cry out in the 3rd, for instance. As I mentioned earlier, my one regret in getting the set was that I thereby missed out on the 'fill-up' found on the issues of the individual symphonies. I do hope those 'fill-ups' get released separately at some point.

Agree with the above. Was lucky enough to get 320kbps MP3s of the complete set from Tesco for about £14! Need to revisit (one of the downsides of so much material being cheap just now is that I tend to listen to new acquisitions) but I remember being heartily impressed.

[johnb]

I was very impressed with Gielen's Mahler 6 when it was played on CD Masters many years ago (and with his Brahms 2, also on CD Masters).

Since then I have often thought about buying the set or getting the individual symphonies (which have imaginative couplings) but I've always been put off by the cost - they are all so bloody expensive.

[mathias broucek]

I was very impressed with Gielen's Mahler 6 when it was played on CD Masters many years ago (and with his Brahms 2, also on CD Masters).

Since then I have often thought about buying the set or getting the individual symphonies (which have imaginative couplings) but I've always been put off by the cost - they are all so bloody expensive.

Quite cheap if you have an emusic account and don't mind lowish bit rate MP3s (c. 200kbps VBR)

[Karafan]

Thanks all. Bryn's advocacy (and that of the other kind responders) has forced my atrophied old hand towards the fragile piggy bank and I have bought the boxset at not inconsiderable personal expense... you are right johnb: but perhaps I am shortly to discover just why they command such a premium, eh Bryn?

[Nick Armstrong]

I was very impressed with Gielen's Mahler 6 when it was played on CD Masters many years ago (and with his Brahms 2, also on CD Masters)

F*** !!! (if i may quote the current programme) - those were the days.

Wouldn't it be nice if Robertson QC's excesses led to a return to just playing interesting interpretations of complete pieces of music?

[AmpH]

Regarding the Michael Gielen Mahler cycle - the individual CD issues ( which include numerous additional recordings not included in the box set of symphonies ) are all available on Spotify, for those who use the service and may be interested in these recordings.

[Karafan]

Just received the box yesterday (most expensive Mahler boxset I have ever bought) and sampled No 1. Phenomenal recording - almost SACD quality - and the interpretation certainly shoots this right to the top of my pile. Quite put me in mind of Kubelik at times, but with a greater degree of clarity and stupendous ensemble playing. The opening is peculiarly bewitching and intoxicating. Can't wait to start sampling the rest of the set, but want to avoid Mahlerian burnout!!