Abbado's Mahler: Chicago or Berlin?

[visualnickmos]

Preferences/comparisons/highs and lows

Let the discussion begin......

[Richard Barrett]

Are we allowed Lucerne as well?

[visualnickmos]

Are we allowed Lucerne as well?

Don't see why not !

[cloughie]

Are we allowed Lucerne as well?

OR Vienna, as his first cycle was CSO 1 2 5 6 7 /VPO 3 4 9. no 8

[visualnickmos]

OR Vienna, as his first cycle was CSO 1 2 5 6 7 /VPO 3 4 9. no 8

We'll add Vienna to the mix.....

[Conchis]

I think he was at his best with the VPO. They had the longest Mahler tradition, and it shows.

[Richard Barrett]

I certainly prefer the Chicago/Vienna recordings to the Berlin ones which suffer from an unfocused sound and often unfocused playing too, and some quite unfortunate ensemble problems from time to time. But I prefer the Lucerne ones to either.

[Petrushka]

A pity that some of those live LSO performances have never (yet) seen the light of day, my goodness some of them were good. For me the Chicago recordings were mostly superseded by the later ones in Lucerne and Berlin.

My choices:

1. Berlin
2. Lucerne
3. Lucerne
4. Vienna
5. Berlin
6. Lucerne
7. Chicago
8. Berlin, obviously
9. Vienna, a particularly fine performance and recording, one of the best 9ths on disc and much under-rated in my view.

[Conchis]

A pity that some of those live LSO performances have never (yet) seen the light of day, my goodness some of them were good. For me the Chicago recordings were mostly superseded by the later ones in Lucerne and Berlin.

My choices:

1. Berlin
2. Lucerne
3. Lucerne
4. Vienna
5. Berlin
6. Lucerne
7. Chicago
8. Berlin, obviously
9. Vienna, a particularly fine performance and recording, one of the best 9ths on disc and much under-rated in my view.

Apparently, Abbado felt his Mahler performances with the LSO exceeded the version he taped in Vienna; but DG would not countenance a Mahler cycle played by a British orchestra.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Apparently, Abbado felt his Mahler performances with the LSO exceeded the version he taped in Vienna; but DG would not countenance a Mahler cycle played by a British orchestra.

[pastoralguy]

Apparently, Abbado felt his Mahler performances with the LSO exceeded the version he taped in Vienna; but DG would not countenance a Mahler cycle played by a British orchestra.

Silly buggers!

[Alison]

Silly buggers!

Look at some of the artists and orchestras the label use now!

[pastoralguy]

Look at some of the artists and orchestras the label use now!

DG have certainly lost their position as 'market leaders' these past years. Some of their output has been very poor indeed and seems to be pandering to a largely indiscriminate Asian market.

As a certain American 'leader' would tweet, Sad!

[cloughie]

Look at some of the artists and orchestras the label use now!

Well they’re all part of Decca or UMG or whatever its called now.

[richardfinegold]

I certainly prefer the Chicago/Vienna recordings to the Berlin ones which suffer from an unfocused sound and often unfocused playing too, and some quite unfortunate ensemble problems from time to time. But I prefer the Lucerne ones to either.

I have the Lucerne on Blu Ray (were they issued on CD?) and the Chicago/Vienna recordings. It's hard to compare (at least it is for me) because inherently the picture in the Blu Ray versions distracts me somewhat from the actual sound being produced. In general I prefer Lucerne in 1, 4, and CSO in 2, VPO in 3, with the others being a tie (to be honest, I don't well recall the first cycle #4)