Mahler Symphony no. 9

[Tony Halstead]

Horenstein/ LSO/ BBC Proms 1966 is in a different league altogether.
I have it on a 'Music and Arts' double CD coupled with Kindertotenlieder sung by Marian Anderson ( 1956, 'National Radio Orchestra').
I do hope this is still available but I fear it may not be.

[Beef Oven!]

Mahler Symphony no. 9

One of my favourite performances of Mahler 9. I can't explain why, but it really reminds me of Barbirolli's EMI Mahler 9, my first CD of this work, IIRC.

Recorded live in 1971.

[Richard Barrett]

One of my favourite performances of Mahler 9. I can't explain why

Well, it's just a highly visionary performance by a conductor who in his time could combine the attention to detail and structure of a Boulez with a much more expressive and poetic character. I don't think anyone's really captured the [there are no words for it] of the final pages of the score as convincingly as Maderna. You can see why all the radical young Dutch composers in the late 1960s campaigned publicly for him to be made chief conductor of the Concertgebouw.

Now playing here: Ligeti, Cello Concerto/Chamber Concerto/Melodien/Piano Concerto by the BIT20 Ensemble on BIS. Excellent performances of these (the first three anyway) classics of NEW MUSIC.

[Beef Oven!]

Thank you Richard. Pretty much it, I guess!

I didn't know that Maderna was so popular in Holland.

[teamsaint]

Thank you Richard. Pretty much it, I guess!

I didn't know that Maderna was so popular in Holland.

Can't really ignore such strong recommendations, so here it is on Youtube. Not sure how the sound quality compares with the CD, Obviously.

[Beef Oven!]

Beefy, what's your favourite Mahler 9?k

That's a very tough question and I can't say. And it changes from month to month.

Recently I've really enjoyed Rattle's BPO from a few year's ago. Will always love HvK's two recordings and of course Maderna. Abbado hits the spot CSO & BPO both. Place in my heart for Glorious John's EMI (pretty intense, on reflection).

Like many forumites I'm sure, I've attended more M9s than I could shake a stick at. Jertzy Unspellable and the LSO about twelve years ago, Haitink a few years before that and Gergiev circa 2008 stick out .....

P.S. "Haitgink" is fabulous!

[Richard Barrett]

That's a very tough question and I can't say.

That sort of question can't be answered honestly, there's more in that score than can be revealed by any one performance, it's not the only such piece of course, but psychologically it's so complex that there's no pinning it down to one "interpretation" or another, if you think you have it worked out you aren't looking closely enough... I'm very pleased to report that it's being performed by my local band at the end of this month, for which I'm intending to go along to as many rehearsals as I can manage as well as the concert.

I would very rarely listen to the same performance of it twice in succession, since I have a shelf full of them. The last one I listened to was Jonathan Nott's, which I hereby recommend highly.

[Beef Oven!]

That sort of question can't be answered honestly, there's more in that score than can be revealed by any one performance, it's not the only such piece of course, but psychologically it's so complex that there's no pinning it down to one "interpretation" or another, if you think you have it worked out you aren't looking closely enough... I'm very pleased to report that it's being performed by my local band at the end of this month, for which I'm intending to go along to as many rehearsals as I can manage as well as the concert.
Richard, who's your local band?
I would very rarely listen to the same performance of it twice in succession, since I have a shelf full of them. The last one I listened to was Jonathan Nott's, which I hereby recommend highly.

Richard, who's your local band?

I don't know the Nott.

[Richard Barrett]

Richard, who's your local band?

I don't know the Nott.

My local band is the Belgrade Philharmonic, in which my nearest and dearest is principal harpist. The Nott is excellent. I've just lined up a few of his other Mahler symphonies on Qobuz for listening soon (2, 3, 4 and 7); strangely, his 9th isn't shown there.

I note that Mr Hurwitz has this to say about Nott's 9th: "There was a time when it was difficult to find a mediocre performance of this symphony, but no longer." So clearly it must be a performance and recording of the highest quality.

[Joseph K]

Place in my heart for Glorious John's EMI (pretty intense, on reflection).

Barbirolli? That was the performance with which I got to know Mahler's ninth. It's a glorious work, one of my favourites by any composer. I still remember hearing it and being deeply affected by its mixture of Eastern-sounding pentatonicism with heavy chromaticism. It sounds other-worldly.

[Beef Oven!]

My local band is the Belgrade Philharmonic, in which my nearest and dearest is principal harpist. The Nott is excellent. I've just lined up a few of his other Mahler symphonies on Qobuz for listening soon (2, 3, 4 and 7); strangely, his 9th isn't shown there.

I note that Mr Hurwitz has this to say about Nott's 9th: "There was a time when it was difficult to find a mediocre performance of this symphony, but no longer." So clearly it must be a performance and recording of the highest quality.

Hurwitz is frustrating. He clearly loves music and knows his onions, but has these perverse outburst from time to time; many of which are simply anti-British, for some reason.

[Beef Oven!]

Barbirolli? That was the performance with which I got to know Mahler's ninth. It's a glorious work, one of my favourites by any composer. I still remember hearing it and being deeply affected by its mixture of Eastern-sounding pentatonicism with heavy chromaticism. It sounds other-worldly.

I suspect many of us started our Mahler 9 journey with Barbirolli's recording.

[Petrushka]

I suspect many of us started our Mahler 9 journey with Barbirolli's recording.

Not me, though. I started mine with the Bruno Walter/Columbia SO recording which blew my socks off when I bought it in 1973. Had the socks removed even more emphatically when I got the Haitink/Concertgebouw recording three years later. I did eventually buy the Barbirolli many years later but for some reason have never warmed to it.

I've got the Maderna performance and very good it is too. Maderna also conducted the BBCSO in Mahler 7 in the RFH in November 1972, a broadcast I heard live on R3. Wonder if the tape still exists?

I'll say more about M9 when I find the time, whenever that is.

[mahlerei]

Like Ferney, I've never warmed to Haitink's Mahler. I bought the 1970 M9 on the strength of its Rosette and simply could not fathom why it was so highly regarded. That said, I think his much more recent Amsterdam Ninth - part of RCO Live's centenary box of DVDs/Blu-rays - is one of the finest I've heard. It really ought to be issued on CD or as a download. Not heard his Bavarian one yet.

[Beef Oven!]

Not me, though. I started mine with the Bruno Walter/Columbia SO recording which blew my socks off when I bought it in 1973. Had the socks removed even more emphatically when I got the Haitink/Concertgebouw recording three years later. I did eventually buy the Barbirolli many years later but for some reason have never warmed to it.

I've got the Maderna performance and very good it is too. Maderna also conducted the BBCSO in Mahler 7 in the RFH in November 1972, a broadcast I heard live on R3. Wonder if the tape still exists?

I'll say more about M9 when I find the time, whenever that is.

The Bruno Walter Colombia was the first M9 that I first knowingly heard, 'round a chum's house in the early 80s. When I went looking for a M9 CD it was the rubber brolly that was readily available and a third of the price of all those lavish, expensive, two CD box sets punted in the early days of CD.

Btw, currently listening to Abbado's BPO M9 - second time straight, tonight.

P.S. Please do give us your further thoughts on this marvellous work when you get the time, Petrushka.

.