Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 12 November 2016 CE 

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IanB I
IanB Nov 14, 2016 09:36:27
Replying to Fitter Stoke

Fitter Stoke wrote:
Yes, it would've been interesting to hear Celibidache's take on Mahler given his obvious Brucknerian credentials. I'm sure I read somewhere though that he hated Mahler which, if true, I find very difficult to comprehend. But ol'Sergiu was a very strange, if great, man!
It may have been that he saw Brahms - Bruckner - Beethoven as something of a closed circuit that needed no further embellishment and sought virtues in "modernism" in France and Russia instead of Vienna.

He may also have simply not had any offers given the absence of recordings to illustrate his approach and process. There may well have been a fear among festival organisers and orchestra managements that he would take the symphonies so slowly the hall unions would be making out like bandits in overtime payments!

More recommendations for the 4th would be welcome. I have Horenstein, Tennstedt, Pinnock, Reiner ('58 Chicago) and Tilson Thomas none of which really entirely do it for me. I have heard the Abbado and liked it a lot (and I love von Stade's voice applied to almost anything) but have not bought that set yet.

F Fitter Stoke
Fitter Stoke Nov 14, 2016 16:47:58
Replying to IanB

My favourite Mahler Fourth is Willem Mengelberg's ultra-romantic 1939 Concertgebouw account with Jo Vincent. It's old and a bit crumbly in places but beyond value as the only complete Mahler symphony recording by one of the composer's truest advocates. He indulges in some severe tempo changes from the outset, but his approach gained the composer's own imprimatur and has to be counted as authentic.

After Mengelberg I'd recommend his successor in Amsterdam, Eduard van Beinum. His is a much more direct approach but one that I find immensely satisfying. (He was a fine Brucknerian too, leaving excellent recordings of syms. 5, 7, 8 and 9.)

For a more modern, stereo recording I can't go past Rafael Kubelik with Elsie Morrison (i.e. Mrs Kubelik, another great artiste we lost this year) and the BRSO on DG. It's a delight from start to finish, and beautifully recorded.

And don't forget Bruno Walter, always marvellous in Mahler (and of course another conductor who actually worked alongside Gustav himself - as did Otto Klemperer.