Mahler: Symphony No.4

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 – Laura Claycomb, soprano; San Francisco Symphony; Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 242 MB | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Full scans | RS links
Publisher: San Francisco Symphony | Recorded: 2003 | Published: 2003

After a terrific First Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas' ongoing Mahler cycle with his San Francisco players really hits its stride with this latest release, one of the truly great recordings ever lavished on the Fourth… This is by any standard an extraordinary achievement, and no one who loves Mahler or this symphony can afford to pass it by. –David Hurwitz

The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov present a new recording of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, laying the foundation of a complete Mahler symphonies cycle to appear on PENTATONE. It will be the label’s first ever full Mahler cycle, and the Czech Philharmonic’s first survey of this extraordinary symphonic opus since their recording under Vacláv Neumann between 1976 and 1982. Although chiefly active in Vienna during the heydays of his career, Mahler was born in what is now the Czech republic, and through this recording project, he returns to his native soil. For conductor Semyon Bychkov, Mahler’s symphonies are all about expressing the polyphony of life, and recording these works is the fulfilment of a life-long fascination. This cycle deliberately starts with the most popular and frequently-played Fourth, famous for its macabre scherzo, soothing slow movement and heavenly finale, sung by soprano Chen Reiss.

Mahler: Symphony No. 4 - Bernstein, NYPO (2007) [2.0 & 5.1] PS3 ISO & FLAC
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 56:12 minutes | 4,49 GB
FLAC 2.0 Stereo (PS3 ISO extract / Weiss Saracon conversion) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 1,13 GB
Label: Sony Music Japan | Year: 1960, 2007 | 5% Recovery Info

This new remastering by Andreas K. Meyer is nothing short of sensational. Some of the finest performances of Mahler & Bernstein, it's amazing how much detail Sony/CBs can get from this stunning SACD!

Of Gustav Mahler's symphonies, the Symphony No. 4 in G major is the most neo-Classical in character, the most lighthearted in expression, and the most compact in form, all of which make it the most accessible of the cycle. Because Mahler's effects are precisely calculated, the music invites few liberties, and performances of the symphony tend to be quite similar in style and pacing; consequently, David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich turn in a meticulous rendition that resembles many others in interpretation and is uncontroversial in execution.

In Gustav Mahler's first four symphonies many of the themes originate in his own settings of folk poems from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn). A case in point, Symphony No. 4 is built around a single song, Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life) which Mahler had composed some eight years earlier, in 1892. The song presents a child's vision of Heaven and is hinted at throughout the first three movements. In the fourth, marked ‘Sehr behaglich’ (Very comfortably), the song is heard in full from a solo soprano instructed by Mahler to sing: ‘with serene, childlike expression; completely without parody!’