BaL 9.04.22 - Mahler: Symphony no. 9

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I’m beginning to think Sir John is going to ace this !

It did look that way. I was very surprised it wasn’t the final version.

[Pulcinella]

2007

Quite, though released a few months later in 2008.

From the Presto site (and presumably the CD liner notes):

Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Work length 1:23:31
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded: 2007-10-27
Recording Venue: Recorded in Concert 24 - 27 October 2007. Philharmonie, Berlin

For the single release:
Release Date: 3rd Mar 2008
Catalogue No: 5012282
Label: Warner Classics
Length: 83 minutes

For the box set:
Release Date: 18th Aug 2017
Catalogue No: 9029586917
Label: Warner Classics
Length: 12 hours 57 minutes

[Bryn]

From the Presto site (and presumably the CD liner notes):

Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Work length 1:23:31
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded: 2007-10-27
Recording Venue: Recorded in Concert 24 - 27 October 2007. Philharmonie, Berlin

For the single release:
Release Date: 3rd Mar 2008
Catalogue No: 5012282
Label: Warner Classics
Length: 83 minutes

For the box set:
Release Date: 18th Aug 2017
Catalogue No: 9029586917
Label: Warner Classics
Length: 12 hours 57 minutes

It's not only Moore who gets the recording year wildly wrong. QOBUZ's main listing gives the release date for the complete symphonies set as 1987! However, their track information gives the correct dates: "© 2017 Parlophone Records Limited, a Warner Music Group Company A Warner Classics release, ℗ 2007 Parlophone Records Limited".

[Ein Heldenleben]

It did look that way. I was very surprised it wasn’t the final version.

I think this will go down as one of the more eccentric final choices. Just looking at previous posts it’s striking how many chose Barborolli or the live Karajan whereas Rattle has been barely mentioned. Must listen again but I seem to remember it being a little “synthetic” for me. I didn’t like the string playing in the final clip much either - harsh and a bit out of tune.

[LHC]

I know you can’t judge much in clips but I just thought Barbs so much better than Rattle not least in the string playing and surprisingly quality of recorded string sound.

Agreed. I thought I already had the Barbirolli, but on checking I discovered to my surprise that I don’t have any of his Mahler Symphonies on CD. So I have just bought a box set of 1, 6, 5, 9 and song cycles with Janet Baker for the princely sum of £11.72.

I already have HvK, Abbado, Haitink, Bernstein and Tennstedt conducting the 9th, so this will be a good addition. I didn’t warm to the Rattle excerpts that were played.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Agreed. I thought I already had the Barbirolli, but on checking I discovered to my surprise that I don’t have any of his Mahler Symphonies on CD. So I have just bought a box set of 1, 6, 5, 9 and song cycles with Janet Baker for the princely sum of £11.72.

I already have HvK, Abbado, Haitink, Bernstein and Tennstedt conducting the 9th, so this will be a good addition. I didn’t warm to the Rattle excerpts that were played.

Interesting that Barbirolli recorded the finale last and in the evening . I wonder how many contemporary conductors put that level of thought into a recording ? And I bet they did it in a couple of takes with little internal editing.

[Pulcinella]

Agreed. I thought I already had the Barbirolli, but on checking I discovered to my surprise that I don’t have any of his Mahler Symphonies on CD. So I have just bought a box set of 1, 6, 5, 9 and song cycles with Janet Baker for the princely sum of £11.72.

I already have HvK, Abbado, Haitink, Bernstein and Tennstedt conducting the 9th, so this will be a good addition. I didn’t warm to the Rattle excerpts that were played.

A wonderful double-JB collaboration, as in Elgar's Sea Pictures.

[Bryn]

Agreed. I thought I already had the Barbirolli, but on checking I discovered to my surprise that I don’t have any of his Mahler Symphonies on CD. So I have just bought a box set of 1, 6, 5, 9 and song cycles with Janet Baker for the princely sum of £11.72.

I already have HvK, Abbado, Haitink, Bernstein and Tennstedt conducting the 9th, so this will be a good addition. I didn’t warm to the Rattle excerpts that were played.

Presumably, the 5th in that set has the horn part starting at 12:18 minutes of track 3, infamously omitted in the original release, patched in.

[mahlerfan]

I think this will go down as one of the more eccentric final choices. Just looking at previous posts it’s striking how many chose Barborolli or the live Karajan whereas Rattle has been barely mentioned. Must listen again but I seem to remember it being a little “synthetic” for me. I didn’t like the string playing in the final clip much either - harsh and a bit out of tune.

I gave it to our 'enery, but he raised Joe's hand.

[BBMmk2]

Having heard the recording by Bruno Walter and the Wiener Philharmoniker, (1938), MrsBBM and myself, didn’t see anything wrong with the sound quality, at all.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I gave it to our 'enery, but he raised Joe's hand.

Yep but the thing about Cooper/Bugner was that it was too close to call.

[Bryn]

I was going to flag his 90s VPO version as an omission, a 'live' performance recorded by Austrian radio and released on EMI, but it seems to have fallen out of the catalogue. His EMI Mahler Symphonies collection has it, but it's been evicted from the latest Warner box in favour of the BPO recording. The original release was apparently coupled with the Strauss Metamorphosen, also with the VPO. Gramophone: 'This may not be a Mahler Ninth for all seasons and all moods, but how thrilling it is to hear the score projected at white heat!'. There are still copies of this and the older Symphonies box floating around if any Rattle fans are interested.

I, too, have that boxed set. I look forward to listening to the later 2007 Berlin recording this evening.

[Keraulophone]

BaL on Prayer for the Day!

Believe it or not, as I was dozing at around 5.40 this morning, Building a Library was mentioned on Radio 4. The Rev Neil Gardner of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh is a regular listener to our beloved programme, and he introduced his Prayer for the Day with a comparison between the different versions of the same work evaluated in BaL with different interpretations of the gospels. It was a comfortingly familiar way to ease into consciousness, although my alarm is set for 9am on Saturdays.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001639j

[jonfan]

BaL on Prayer for the Day!

Believe it or not, as I was dozing at around 5.40 this morning, Building a Library was mentioned on Radio 4. The Rev Neil Gardner of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh is a regular listener to our beloved programme, and he introduced his Prayer for the Day with a comparison between the different versions of the same work evaluated in BaL with different interpretations of the gospels. It was a comfortingly familiar way to ease into consciousness, although my alarm is set for 9am on Saturdays.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001639j

Brilliant

[cloughie]

OK so which Forum member snapped up the VPO/Abbado 9th for £3.95 on Amazon that I’d been eyeing?