Mahler Symphony No.3 Boulez

Normally, Mahler's Fourth Symphony is the one that you turn on for great background listening. It's beautiful, lyrical, and Mahler at his most mellow. But underneath its innocent exterior, there's a lot going on, and who better than technician Pierre Boulez to point out the mechanics? Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra deliver an impressive performance of this heavenly work that, on the surface, stays clear of romanticism (or, to some ears, rampant emotion). Instead, Boulez focuses on clarity throughout each and every passage. From his quick-tempoed opening movement to the heart-warming "We Enjoy Heaven's Delights" song of the fourth (performed here by soprano Juliane Banse)–Boulez slowly transitions from clinical to dramatic. It's a captivating, modernist interpretation that's thoroughly enthralling.

David Zinman's recording of Mahler's Sixth Symphony, with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, is magnificent: dramatic, dynamic, heroic, and tragic. In the wake of many versions that are excessively emotional and hyperactive, Zinman's reading is refreshingly sane and lucid. Zinman has turned in great Beethoven and Schumann cycles with the Tonhalle Orchestra, and so far, his Mahler cycle seems set on the same trajectory. His Sixth avoids the extremes of heaviness and lightness; the tempos do not drag, the textures are rich but they do not clot, and the colors are beguiling without delaying forward motion.

The Symphony No. 7, nicknamed "The Song of the Night," is widely regarded as the most enigmatic of Mahler's cycle and the most difficult to coherently interpret as a symphonic structure, even by this composer's extraordinary standards. The movements are undeniably Mahlerian in their abrupt mood swings and ironic twists, and each offers a wealth of fantastic ideas and brilliant orchestration – arguably the most innovative sounds in all of Mahler's works.

A host of accomplished conductors including Daniel Harding, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink and Eliahu Inbal lead the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in these performances of Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 1-10. Recorded in Amsterdam over two seasons in 2010/11, the collection also includes 'Das Lied von der Erde'.

Having never liked Mahler's Fifth as much as 1-4 and the 6th, I approached this recording with some trepidation. To my ears, Boulez was too cerebral, Bernstein too hysterical, and Barbirolli too rhythmically loose. But Dohnanyi, one of the most underrated conductors of our time (the others being Chailly and Mackerras) gives here an outstanding performance of the symphony, finding an incredibly valid mid-point between lyrical warmth and muscular power. My one complaint was the second movement, which is not quite as frightening as one might like, yet the way Dohnanyi finishes his phrases and connects the disparate sections of each movement leave one breathless with wonder.

It seems that Gary Bertini, like Gustav Mahler, is destined to be better remembered after his death than he was known during his life. When he passed away in 2005, he was little known outside Israel, Japan and continental Europe and nowhere near as widely recognised as the glamour conductors who appear on the пїЅmajorпїЅ labels. His recordings were few and hard to find. A year after his passing, Capriccio has launched a Gary Bertini Edition (see, for example, review) featuring live recordings drawn from the archives of the KпїЅlner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, and EMI has re-released his Mahler cycle.

This Sony-made 30CD classical music collection covers almost all classical music, from the early Baroque period represented by Bach to the schools of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms represent romantic, national and even modern musical schools led by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, etc. representative, everything wonderful and vivid.