Re: The Best Mahler 3rd Recording.....so far....

[Chris from Lafayette]

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 10:03:15 AM UTC-8, haydnh...@gmail.com wrote:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5RbTbkMAD0&t=2s

I love that recording! BUT. . . there's a place near the end of the first movement where the trumpets and horns are supposed to be playing in unisons and octaves, and one of the musicians has evidently picked up the wrong instrument and they're instead playing in parallel fifths and fourths (starting at 21:59 of the YouTube video which you linked to)! Yikes! How did that take make it into the finished product???

I really consider Neumann a truly great conductor, but in the Mahler 3rd, I prefer his remake with the CzPO on the Japanese Canon label, where they all avoid that little "incident" which occurs in the Supraphon recording! ;-)

[Chris from Lafayette]

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 1:21:09 PM UTC-8, Chris from Lafayette wrote:

> I really consider Neumann a truly great conductor, but in the Mahler 3rd, I prefer his remake with the CzPO on the Japanese Canon label, where they all avoid that little "incident" which occurs in the Supraphon recording! ;-)

Canyon label, not Canon label.

[mswd...@gmail.com]

Whatever the strengths of the Supraphon recording, some of the conducting is too foursquare for me.

[raymond....@gmail.com]

Neumann on Supraphon is my most recent Mahler acquisition, and I am quite pleased. Certainly avoids excess or much hysteria, which is a plus for me as it balances cycles by Bernstein and Tennstedt, and it is a gorgeous sounding Mahler, aided by the Czech PO. The 7th lacks the grotesquerie of other versions, and one of the Nacht movements is too slow, but the 3rd symphony is a very fine recording. Even so, Bernstein/NYPO is a truly great 3rd, but then Neumann is definitely a more liveable with cycle in order to appreciate the Czech experience that Mahler was born into.

Ray Hall, Taree

[Chris from Lafayette]

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 5:30:10 PM UTC-8, raymond....@gmail.com wrote:

> Neumann on Supraphon is my most recent Mahler acquisition, and I am quite pleased. Certainly avoids excess or much hysteria, which is a plus for me as it balances cycles by Bernstein and Tennstedt, and it is a gorgeous sounding Mahler, aided by the Czech PO. The 7th lacks the grotesquerie of other versions, and one of the Nacht movements is too slow, but the 3rd symphony is a very fine recording. Even so, Bernstein/NYPO is a truly great 3rd, but then Neumann is definitely a more liveable with cycle in order to appreciate the Czech experience that Mahler was born into.
>
> Ray Hall, Taree

I think we're generally on the same wavelength here, although I generally don't like Bernstein as a conductor all that much. (I keep thinking of the term, "gilding the lily" when he conducts.) I know (and even kind of agree with) what you're saying, but I still prefer Neumann myself. OTOH, there are so many Mahler Thirds which I like, although perhaps many of them wouldn't have 100% general consensus appeal! ;-)

[Chris from Lafayette]

On Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at 5:38:41 AM UTC-8, haydnh...@gmail.com wrote:

> How are the acoustics of this Japanese release? The acoustics of the Rodolfinum (pictured outside and inside in the video) sre superb!

The acoustics on the Canyon/Exton release, also recorded at the Rudolfinum Dvorakova sin in Prague, are also superb - perhaps even better than the Supraphon recording (which I believe was produced in conjunction with Denon, and which briefly appeared too on the Pro Arte label in the US).

The Canyon/Exton recording of the Third Symphony was made August 31 - September 7, 1994. Neumann died on September 2, 1995.

I believe that Neumann's last completed recording was the Mahler Ninth, also for Japanese Canyon (later Exton), recorded August 21-28, 1995.

[Oscar]

Haitink w/ BRSO, which yours truly extolled upon release in these pages, and which was deemed, in the event, Recording of the Year 2017 by BBC Music Magazine. (No, I am not a contributing editor at BBC Music Magazine, although the vastness of my music knowledge and exquisite command of the Queen's English all but assures I would be a formidable one.) Haitink was 88- or 89-years-old when it was recorded.

I also like the 2019 one by François-Xavier Roth and Gürzenichers of Cologne on hm. Hurwitz did not like it so much.

https://www.classical-music.com/news/bernard-haitinks-mahler-3-wins-recording-year/

January 9, 2017:
<< One of the BEST Mahler 3's I've ever heard. Just had a fitful bout with insomnia (coffee too late in the day) and decided to fire up AppleMusic to find some musical relief. I saw Haitink's new 2CD release on BR Klassik of what can be a long, occasionally plodding affair. Perfect, I thought. Haitink is never less than a competent conductor, and in Mahler usually much more accomplished than that. Well, bust my buttons, this was a riveting performance from first note till last. His sense of the architecture, the balances and tempi just so, an overarching vision that bound all the various components together. Just wonderful. Do check this out. Haitink is still with us. And glory be! >>

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.classical.recordings/c/du0g-IeW5fY/m/lI4K5NTgBQAJ

[gggg gggg]

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 5:30:10 PM UTC-8, raymond....@gmail.com wrote:

(Y.upload):

Mahler "Symphony No 3" Leonard Bernstein 1972

[randy wolfgang]

Hurwitz liked Bernstein for the first movement, Haitink for the last movement and a trade-off for the middle movements

[Dan Koren]

Horenstein

[randy wolfgang]

On Monday, July 11, 2022 at 12:00:30 AM UTC-4, dan....@gmail.com wrote:
> Horenstein
I think it was Nonesuch LPs but and then Unicorn CDs

[gggg gggg]

(Recent Y. upload):

Dave's Faves No. 169 (Mahler)

[Bob Harper]

Yes. I have it.

Bob Harper

[randy wolfgang]

I recall when I was a kid finding in a used LP store a three LP Vox Box of him conducting the First and the Ninth and really liking them Randy

[Bob Harper]

Lucky you! Finding that set was like finding a needle in a haystack! I
looked for it for years but never found it. I finally heard the 9th when
it was reissued on CD in the '80s.

Bob Harper

[gggg gggg]

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 1:21:09 PM UTC-8, Chris from Lafayette wrote:

Gramophone approves of Bernstein in this 2022 article:

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/top-10-gustav-mahler-symphony-recordings

[randy wolfgang]

I don't have the LPs anymore since they were reissued by VOX on CD. They were early 50s recordings with the Vienna Symphony and both the sound and the orchestra were kind of sketchy but the readings were very strong and had impact. Here it is on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/284475906932?hash=item423c15db74:g:FP0AAOSwEC9hWvjK

[Bob Harper]

Thanks. I'd never even seen the album, much less found one for sale.

Bob Harper

[Gerard]

Op 2022-07-12 om 14:36 schreef randy wolfgang:

It was once part of a Mahler box on Brilliant Classics (with all
symphonies performed by 5 or 6 different conductors).
A recording very much lauded by some reviewers (mostly - if not all - UK
reviewers IIRC). I have never understood what that fuss was about.

[Frank Berger]

There was an earlier Horenstein Mahler 3 from 1961, also with the LSO, with Helen Watts. This has been released on CD on Archipel, Profil and been given the Pristine treatment. Pristine has a discussion:

https://www.pristineclassical.com/products/pasc565

While I don't really recall listening to it, I made a note that said, less polished but better than the Unicorn, for what that's worth.

[randy wolfgang]

Thats a live perforrmance?? and the one with Proctor that was on Nonesuch was studio

[Gerard]

Op 2022-07-12 om 16:14 schreef Frank Berger:

The recording on Brilliant Classics was with Procter, licensed from Unicorn.

[Herman]

There's a very good Haitink live M3 out there.

[Gerard]

Op 2022-07-12 om 17:02 schreef Herman:

> There's a very good Haitink live M3 out there.

Do you refer to his recording with the Symphonieorchester des
Bayerischen Rundfunks? Or the Kerstmatinee recording? Or with the
Chicago SO? These are all live.
(OMG I seem to have 5 recordings with Haitink .... )

[Frank Berger]

Yes, live.

[Herman]

Well, which one do YOU like best?

[gggg gggg]

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 1:21:09 PM UTC-8, Chris from Lafayette wrote:
> On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 10:03:15 AM UTC-8, haydnh...@gmail.com wrote:
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5RbTbkMAD0&t=2s
>
> I love that recording! BUT. . . there's a place near the end of the first movement where the trumpets and horns are supposed to be playing in unisons and octaves, and one of the musicians has evidently picked up the wrong instrument and they're instead playing in parallel fifths and fourths (starting at 21:59 of the YouTube video which you linked to)! Yikes! How did that take make it into the finished product???
>
> I really consider Neumann a truly great conductor, but in the Mahler 3rd, I prefer his remake with the CzPO on the Japanese Canon label, where they all avoid that little "incident" which occurs in the Supraphon recording! ;-)

https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/rec.music.classical.recordings/c/AleBntxwy5o/m/VnsjujHN3zIJ

[Gerard]

Op 2022-07-12 om 20:08 schreef Herman:

I really don't know at the moment. I should listen to all of them again
and compare them (quite a job with a 100 minutes work like this). And
then there is a chance I like Bernstein or Ivan Fischer or Abbado better.
I think I will never really know .... ;-)

[Frank Berger]

What's wrong with being in the moment? I am totally OK with not knowing which performance of a work is the best or even my favorite. If forced, I can assign a grade of 1-10 or whatever right after listening to a work. I don't know if in my little head that rating is relative to other performances I've heard (I think not) or just some gut rating relative to imagined perfection, or just how much pleasure I got in the moment.

[Gerard]

Op 2022-07-12 om 23:05 schreef Frank Berger:

Well, I did not say that there is something wrong with not knowing which
recording I like the best. I just don't know. And finding out would be
quite a job, due to the length of the piece.
(If I really had a favorite, I would have told of course.)

[Frank Berger]

I was reflecting a feeling I sometimes get about competition. When a soccer team wins the World Cup or Olympic Gold medal 5-4 on penalty kicks after playing 90 minutes, or a baseball team wins the World Series in the 7th game by one run, or a basketball team wins in 3 overtimes on an improbable shot and so forth, the winner gets all the glory and nobody even remembers that the loser played. It never really made sense to me.

[Gerard]

Op 2022-07-13 om 01:20 schreef Frank Berger:

There's a big difference between a competition (where there is always a
winner, and only one) and a preference for matters of art, like for
recordings or performances of music.
Of course I don't tell you something new ;-)

Another matter is a piano (or violin or whatever) competition, where a
winner is elected by a jury.

For some works I have a clear preference,, or maybe more than one. But a
real "winner" I have rarely.

[gggg gggg]

According to this:

- Bernard Haitink's 2016 recording of Mahler's Third Symphony is arguably the greatest interpretation of that towering work committed to record.

https://www.overgrownpath.com/2021/12/have-all-really-great-musicians-come.html

[Herman]

Haitink's Third is certainly one of the greats. The Overgrown Path piece should be required reading for RMCRers,

[Oscar]

On Friday, July 29, 2022 at 12:18:48 AM, herman wrote:
>
> Haitink's Third is certainly one of the greats. The Overgrown Path piece should be required reading for RMCRers,

_As I said_.

January 9, 2017:
<< One of the BEST Mahler 3's I've ever heard. Just had a fitful bout with insomnia (coffee too late in the day) and decided to fire up AppleMusic to find some musical relief. I saw Haitink's new 2CD release on BR Klassik of what can be a long, occasionally plodding affair. Perfect, I thought. Haitink is never less than a competent conductor, and in Mahler usually much more accomplished than that. Well, bust my buttons, this was a riveting performance from first note till last. His sense of the architecture, the balances and tempi just so, an overarching vision that bound all the various components together. Just wonderful. Do check this out. Haitink is still with us. And glory be! >>

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.classical.recordings/c/du0g-IeW5fY/m/lI4K5NTgBQAJ