BaL 3.03.18 - Mahler: Symphony no. 7

[Alison]

Mahler 7 was my first experience of this composer so it's always been my favourite of his works. This was back in the 80's when I played in the first Scottish performance of the 7th Symphony! I remember buying the tape of Tennstedt and the LPO which had some fluffs so I presume it was a live recording. (Did he record it more than one nice with the LPO?). Alas, all other performances, despite their polish, just don't match up to this recording. I did buy the Abbado/Chicago performance on cd but just found it a bit too refined after the helter-skelter ride that is Tennstedt.

For me, the end of the first movement is one of the most exciting things in all music.

Three recordings altogether, PG. Early eighties studio, 1980 Edinburgh Festival (BBCL) and early nineties live. I imagine only the first would have been available on tape. Of these the BBC Legends disc is the pick.

[Beef Oven!]

Intrigued by enthusiasm here and ES' review of the latest Jansons Mahler 7, I took a listen on Qobuz HF..... and I'm afraid I found myself agreeing with ES fairly quickly. I wouldn't want to go too far with this one, even if I wanted to hear Mahler more than I currently do. From the very start, so slow and smoothed-over, it does sound - beautiful, all-too-beautiful, and when I compared Kondrashin's Leningrad Phil recording in the scherzo, well.... the superiority of the KK - in tautness and definition, colour, character and sheer aliveness, those bar-to-bar sudden shifts of emphasis and phrase, yet without undue exaggeration - was almost laughable. It very unexpectedly made me want to hear the work again.
Not that there's any time here for an M7 just now - at least not at a single sitting.

I don't always agree with ES but, he's an experienced and knowledgable reviewer, and I've usually more time for him than HD seems to have....
"Whatever this is, it isn't Mahler's 7th" is hyperbolic, but I can see exactly why he said it.
I guess it depends what you want from your Mahler. So it goes.

(I think Seckerson's review of the recent Heras-Casado Bartok album is pretty fair too; a matter of some regret to me, having already purchased, heard, and not been much drawn back to, the hi-res download...

I'm pleased I missed Seckerson's review of the Heras-Casado Bartók album because I really like it and it might have put me off! Very pleased with the Hi-Res download, here!

Interesting editorial on the 'resurgence' (?) of the 'album' sobriquet.

I shall now find that Bartók review

[Nick Armstrong]

I still have somewhere the script which R3 very kindly sent me of Michael Kennedy's excellent BAL survey of Mahler 7 in the late 1980s, when he chose the Abbado/Chicago as his top choice, for very cogently-argued and well-illustrated reasons. I was already totally sold on it from the cassette set I had at the time.

Subsequently the live Berlin/Gielen performance has joined it at the top of the pile (as I have bored the company about on several occasions )

[pastoralguy]

Three recordings altogether, PG. Early eighties studio, 1980 Edinburgh Festival (BBCL) and early nineties live. I imagine only the first would have been available on tape. Of these the BBC Legends disc is the pick.

Many thanks, Alison.

[Beef Oven!]

I still have somewhere the script which R3 very kindly sent me of Michael Kennedy's excellent BAL survey of Mahler 7 in the late 1980s, when he chose the Abbado/Chicago as his top choice, for very cogently-argued and well-illustrated reasons. I was already totally sold on it from the cassette set I had at the time.

Subsequently the live Berlin/Gielen performance has joined it at the top of the pile (as I have bored the company about on several occasions )

I thought that this BaL could be cost-neutral but I see a Gielen purchase coming on.

[Petrushka]

Mahler 7 was my first experience of this composer so it's always been my favourite of his works. This was back in the 80's when I played in the first Scottish performance of the 7th Symphony! I remember buying the tape of Tennstedt and the LPO which had some fluffs so I presume it was a live recording. (Did he record it more than one nice with the LPO?). Alas, all other performances, despite their polish, just don't match up to this recording. I did buy the Abbado/Chicago performance on cd but just found it a bit too refined after the helter-skelter ride that is Tennstedt.

For me, the end of the first movement is one of the most exciting things in all music.

There are three Tennstedt recordings of the 7th (as far as I know). The 'official' EMI recording, a live 1991 RFH performance also on EMI and a live 1980 one issued on BBC Legends. This last is a wonderful, thrilling performance, given in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh and I'd bet that this is the one you recall. Needless to say, I have all three.

EDIT: See Alison got there first, but at least we agree.

[pastoralguy]

There are three Tennstedt recordings of the 7th (as far as I know). The 'official' EMI recording, a live 1991 RFH performance also on EMI and a live 1987 one issued on BBC Legends. This last is a wonderful, thrilling performance, given in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh and I'd bet that this is the one you recall. Needless to say, I have all three.

Many thanks, Pet.

[Nick Armstrong]

I thought that this BaL could be cost-neutral but I see a Gielen purchase coming on.

I know it makes sense, even if you don't (yet)

[Nick Armstrong]

There are three Tennstedt recordings of the 7th (as far as I know). The 'official' EMI recording, a live 1991 RFH performance also on EMI and a live 1987 one issued on BBC Legends. This last is a wonderful, thrilling performance, given in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh and I'd bet that this is the one you recall. Needless to say, I have all three.

Oh dear, I remember a Tennstedt Mahler 7 at the RFH as being the only performance by him which I didn't like - at all.... It was very sprawling, incoherent, and seemed to go on for ever

[Alison]

Oh dear, I remember a Tennstedt Mahler 7 at the RFH as being the only performance by him which I didn't like - at all.... It was very sprawling, incoherent, and seemed to go on for ever

That sounds very much like the live 1991 Festival Hall, Cali. Recorded around the same time as Philharmonia/Sinopli and readily outshone by that version. A big disappointment, perhaps Tennstedt's last recording, but easy to forgive.

By contrast the 1980 Edinburgh performance is hardly short of sensational.

[Petrushka]

That sounds very much like the live 1991 Festival Hall, Cali. Recorded around the same time as Philharmonia/Sinopli and readily outshone by that version. A big disappointment, perhaps Tennstedt's last recording, but easy to forgive.

By contrast the 1980 Edinburgh performance is hardly short of sensational.

Alas, I never heard Tennstedt (or Abbado) in a live 7th but that Edinburgh performance is indeed sensational. Of live performances that I have heard the one I remember most is Rattle and the CBSO at a 1989 Prom while Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the Barbican in, I think, 1998 come a very close second.

[Alison]

Alas, I never heard Tennstedt (or Abbado) in a live 7th but that Edinburgh performance is indeed sensational. Of live performances that I have heard the one I remember most is Rattle and the CBSO at a 1989 Prom while Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the Barbican in, I think, 1998 come a very close second.

I can recall a Sunday afternoon Concertgebouw/Chailly Mahler 7 from the Barbican, live on radio, mid nineties with an exceptionally good finale.

[richardfinegold]

Yes, it’s Secko....

- All that is awkward has been made safe
- Orchestral colour lush but anonymous
- Rhythms sluggish
- Precious phrasing of second subject
- Bland characterisation in Nachtmusiks
- Dullest finale ever heard
- Coda goes for nothing

That’s about the gist of it!

Sounds like a typical Jansons outing to me

[Beef Oven!]

Sounds like a typical Jansons outing to me

works with chaikowsky

[richardfinegold]

And he just doesn't like Mariss Jansons .... He is indeed experienced and knowledgeable but just a bit too prone to peddle his prejudices. Later Bernstein in Mahler? Ick ....

I'm sticking to Hans Zender - "Secko" (which rhymes rather aptly with gecko) has probably never heard of him.

Well now I have some perspective for your Mahler tastes, HD. If those are your feelings towards Bernstein’s Mahler, now I understand your preference for Yawnsons Homogenized Pablum.
Well, I guess that we recording collectors can be fortunate that there is a Mahler Conductor out there to suit every taste, and that Mahler’s music can withstand such a variety of interpretive approaches