Gustav Mahler: Symphonie 9.

Mahler's Fifth was one of the pieces Leonard Bernstein owned. This interpretation is broader than the one he recorded with the New York Philharmonic in the early 1960s, but it's little changed in feeling. It is, however, far more polished and a good deal more persuasive. The recording, like all of Bernstein's later Mahler cycle, was made live; here, he and the Vienna Philharmonic give a gripping performance full of telling nuance, intensely expressive yet thoroughly controlled. It's a reading both Dionysiac and "Bachic"–as in J. S. Bach, not Bacchus–one in which the impetuous energy of the score is transmitted to the fullest degree, but not at the expense of the extraordinary (for Mahler) contrapuntal detail.

Giuseppe Sinopoli was a conductor quite versed in Mahler’s music. He left recordings of all the Mahler symphonies made for Deutsche Grammophon (DGG). It is well known that each of these performances is on the highest level. So it is natural that most listeners think these Mahler recordings are the last word of Sinopoli’s interpretation.

Il existe de nombreux enregistrements de la Première Symphonie de Mahler, mais très peu d'entre eux proposent de découvrir un mouvement que le compositeur retira in fine : “Blumine”. “Après tant d’auditions comparées, il est donc assez rare d’être à ce point captivé dès les premières mesures ! […] Le dosage est tout simplement magistral entre parodie et poésie, entre lyrisme et dérision, entre la “laideur” délibérée des timbres de l’orphéon villageois et l’envoûtante magie sonore des cordes… un chef évidemment possédé par Mahler.

The likelihood is that Bruno Walter designed his transcriptions of Mahler’s First and Second Symphonies for public performance. Dynamics, phrasings and accents have been dropped in with forensic clarity, a concentration of detail unnecessary had the purpose merely been to demonstrate the broad outlines of Mahler’s works to potential interested parties. These transcriptions were meant to spread the word, reaching out to audiences during a time when performances of Mahler symphonies were still rare events.

Chailly's Mahler Tenth has certainly withstood the test of time since its original release in 1988. Simon Rattle's new Berlin recording offers perhaps a more highly inflected, characterful performance, but Chailly has both the better playing and sound, and this pays particular dividends in the dark, rich string textures of the opening and closing movements. Both Rattle and Chailly use Deryck Cooke's revised performing version (Chailly sticks to it more literally than does Rattle), and this remains the edition of choice. Recent releases of other completion attempts, including a pretty ghastly one by Remo Mazzetti, only confirm the excellence of Cooke's work.

Bernard Haitink has had a long association with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 in D minor, from his classic 1966 stereo recording with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to his 2006 audiophile recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This 2016 release on BR Klassik finds Haitink leading the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a stirring live performance that shows no diminishment of the conductor's interpretive powers, and compares quite well with his previous renditions.

Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection Symphony, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. This symphony was one of Mahler's most popular and successful works during his lifetime. It was his first major work that established his lifelong view of the beauty of afterlife and resurrection. In this large work, the composer further developed the creativity of "sound of the distance" and creating a "world of its own", aspects already seen in his First Symphony. The work has a duration of eighty to ninety minutes and is conventionally labelled as being in the key of C minor; the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians labels the work's tonality as C minor–E♭ major. It was voted the fifth-greatest symphony of all time in a survey of conductors carried out by the BBC Music Magazine.

Karajan’s Deutsche Grammophon complete recordings is recorded on chronological order. From the “Magic Flute” overture of the 1938 recording used as first recording to the recording of the last in 1989, and the Symphony No.7 of Bruckner. There is no selling separately. It becomes ordering limited production.