BaL 3.03.18 - Mahler: Symphony no. 7

[BBMmk2]

Morning Bbm

Nippy down here in Kent, but there's a bir of sun at least.

Yes, we really do react to given artists in very different ways....

Can you give me a post number or link, please?

Best D

Likewise over here M!

What Are You Listening to Now III, it should be. Quite one of the best performances I've heard since Abbado's.

[Barbirollians]

I am interested by the good reviews of the Gergiev as I thought his Mahler 5 was atrocious.

Of recent accounts I liked the Bamberg/ Nott account a great deal.

[BBMmk2]

I am interested by the good reviews of the Gergiev as I thought his Mahler 5 was atrocious.

Of recent accounts I liked the Bamberg/ Nott account a great deal.

I thought from my memory on here, that a few boarders here didn't much like Gergiev's cycle with LSO?

[Beef Oven!]

I thought from my memory on here, that a few boarders here didn't much like Gergiev's cycle with LSO?

You'll find that Gergiev is slated for political reasons rather than anything else. His LSO Mahler traversal at the Barbican a few years back was amazing and the subsequent LSO Live releases from the concerts were rather good, if perhaps not quite as exciting as the actual gigs. His Mahler 5 is actually very good, but like all music, you must listen to it with an open mind and open ears to appreciate it.

Seckerson gives the game away that he really enjoyed listening to Gergiev's M5, but can't break free from the orthodox reading and seeks refuge in Bernstein's VPO recording.

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/mahler-symphony-no-5-6

[vinteuil]

Seckerson gives the game away that he really enjoyed listening to Gergiev's M5, but can't break free from the orthodox reading and seeks refuge in Bernstein's VPO recording.
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/...ymphony-no-5-6

... do you consider that Mr Bernstein's recording was an 'orthodox reading'? Discuss...

I doubt whether Mr Bernstein wd have liked to have thought that people considered his performance 'orthodox'...


.

[Richard Barrett]

I doubt whether Mr Bernstein wd have liked to have thought that people considered his performance 'orthodox'...

Well, quite.

This discussion makes me want to hear the Gergiev recording. I don't know much about him and his work - I do like his Prokofiev symphonies with the LSO, but Mahler is a different world altogether.

[Beef Oven!]

... do you consider that Mr Bernstein's recording was an 'orthodox reading'? Discuss...

I doubt whether Mr Bernstein wd have liked to have thought that people considered his performance 'orthodox'...


.

HaHa! I knew I would be picked up on that before I'd even typed it!

No, I consider it an orthodox recommendation. The recording rather than the performance.

(Does this count as a discussion? Discuss)

[vinteuil]

No, I consider it an orthodox recommendation.

... surely an 'orthodox recommendation' from Beef Oven! is almost by definition an 'unorthodox recommendation'?

And nothing wrong with that, neither!

.

[Beef Oven!]

Well, quite.

It's an orthodox choice. Lennie is never orthodox!

This discussion makes me want to hear the Gergiev recording. I don't know much about him and his work - I do like his Prokofiev symphonies with the LSO, but Mahler is a different world altogether.

His Tchaikovsky is very good, too.

[Beef Oven!]

... surely an 'orthodox recommendation' from Beef Oven! is almost by definition an 'unorthodox recommendation'?

And nothing wrong with that, neither!

.

If there's a compliment in there, I'm 'avin' it.

[Nick Armstrong]

If there's a compliment in there, I'm 'avin' it.

[Richard Barrett]

I've just been listening to Gergiev... I can't say it strikes me as particularly unorthodox, although it did remind me one of the things I particularly like about the earlier Abbado recording is the sound of the tenor horn in this movement, and I like it here too, although for me the recorded sound of the LSO seems highly artificial in favouring the strings, especially over the greatly recessed brass (but not the percussion, which is just weird - the cymbal clashes in the last few minutes sound like it's the conductor playing them!). In my opinion Mahler's orchestration doesn't need this kind of "assistance", and as the movement went on I found the recording increasingly annoying. I guess that would rule it out for me. Nice playing though.

edit: I listened through to the end... apart from my problem with the recording, I don't think VG has anything really original to contribute to this piece and for me he doesn't have sufficient attention to detail. I'm sure I would have appreciated it if I'd been at the concert because I don't go to enough Mahler concerts, but as a recording it isn't going to draw me away from the others I know.

[Barbirollians]

I've just been listening to Gergiev... I can't say it strikes me as particularly unorthodox, although it did remind me one of the things I particularly like about the earlier Abbado recording is the sound of the tenor horn in this movement, and I like it here too, although for me the recorded sound of the LSO seems highly artificial in favouring the strings, especially over the greatly recessed brass (but not the percussion, which is just weird - the cymbal clashes in the last few minutes sound like it's the conductor playing them!). In my opinion Mahler's orchestration doesn't need this kind of "assistance", and as the movement went on I found the recording increasingly annoying. I guess that would rule it out for me. Nice playing though.

edit: I listened through to the end... apart from my problem with the recording, I don't think VG has anything really original to contribute to this piece and for me he doesn't have sufficient attention to detail. I'm sure I would have appreciated it if I'd been at the concert because I don't go to enough Mahler concerts, but as a recording it isn't going to draw me away from the others I know.

Thank you for this review of the Gergiev Mahler 7 doesn't sound as if it is particularly worth seeking out.

His Mahler 5 is a caricature of the piece. I heard it on of all places Classic FM and had no idea he was conducting . I found myself listening to the end in disbelief to find out who had conducted such a bad performance. It was like a parody to my ears.

A shame I thought his Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet particularly outstanding.

[Beef Oven!]

I've just been listening to Gergiev... I can't say it strikes me as particularly unorthodox, although it did remind me one of the things I particularly like about the earlier Abbado recording is the sound of the tenor horn in this movement, and I like it here too, although for me the recorded sound of the LSO seems highly artificial in favouring the strings, especially over the greatly recessed brass (but not the percussion, which is just weird - the cymbal clashes in the last few minutes sound like it's the conductor playing them!). In my opinion Mahler's orchestration doesn't need this kind of "assistance", and as the movement went on I found the recording increasingly annoying. I guess that would rule it out for me. Nice playing though.

edit: I listened through to the end... apart from my problem with the recording, I don't think VG has anything really original to contribute to this piece and for me he doesn't have sufficient attention to detail. I'm sure I would have appreciated it if I'd been at the concert because I don't go to enough Mahler concerts, but as a recording it isn't going to draw me away from the others I know.

I didn't say that VG was unorthodox or that Lennie was orthodox. What I meant is that choosing Lennie is the conformist choice. VG is very good IMO, but it wouldn't draw me away from my existing favourites, either. I'm ambivalent to performances that contribute anything original anyway, so in that regard I'm quite traditional.

[mahlerei]

I've just been listening to Gergiev... I can't say it strikes me as particularly unorthodox, although it did remind me one of the things I particularly like about the earlier Abbado recording is the sound of the tenor horn in this movement, and I like it here too, although for me the recorded sound of the LSO seems highly artificial in favouring the strings, especially over the greatly recessed brass (but not the percussion, which is just weird - the cymbal clashes in the last few minutes sound like it's the conductor playing them!). In my opinion Mahler's orchestration doesn't need this kind of "assistance", and as the movement went on I found the recording increasingly annoying. I guess that would rule it out for me. Nice playing though.

Yes, the recording is the downside, as indeed it is with most LSO Live releases. The final movement of Rostropovich's DSCH 11 has bizarre balances too, with bass drum and percussion suddenly in one's lap. Such 'assistance' may be superficially exciting, but it's not an experience to repeat.

I thought the Philips engineers were much more successful with VG's first LSO Prokofiev cycle, recorded in the noughties. Also, VG seemed more consistent then; his recent LSO Rachmaninov is all over the place.