The Best Recordings of Mahler Symphony No. 9
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2023
- Gil Zilkha, singer/collector/music enthusiast
In this installment of Essential Classical Music, I cover the best recordings of Mahler's 9th Symphony. This video is taken from my larger video covering the major symphonies and their best recordings. Featured conductors include Karajan, Barbirolli, and Klemperer, among others. - กีฬา
I remember listeining to the Karajan's Mahler 9 in the parking lot of the mall i worked for, in my car during break time. It was a very tough period. It steadily grew on me until i eventually became addicted. I remember playing back the final adagio over and over again in my head while working, there was just something hauntingly beautiful in the way the strings are layed out during the entire movement (and symphony). Those moments where the whole music seems like it's about to collapse on itself just to be saved by the recourring theme at last... It's harmonicaly edgy, yet heartbreaking and so powerfully nostalgic. I love the Abbado's version with the Berliner from 2002. Thanks for your video, i'll definetely check out the other recordings as well!
Karajan's finale is glorious.
Nice to see another Classical review channel (competing with Hurwitz). BTW, Hurwitz hates the Barbirolli Berlin recording, but I agree with you. I think it is superb. My favorite is probably Ancerl which I had procured on LP back in the day...just a knockout performance. I also recently acquired the Bertini complete Mahler Symohonies with Cologne. It's very impressive and brilliantly recorded.
I agree with you regarding the Barbirolli and Ancerl recordings. As for the Barbirolli, I have had a CD for years but I overlooked it as the sonics were not great, and I thought the performance was kind of average. Then BBC Radio 3 "Building a Library" recently considered it a leading contender for the "library"; then I saw Gil here praise it warmly. Was I wrong about it? So I bought the 2021 remaster (192 kbps/24 bit). In phenomenal remastered sound; hearing what it must have been for the Berlin Philharmonic: a voyage of discovery. This is what I love being wrong about! Thanks Gil
Thanks for the great review! Another very interesting live recording is Jascha Horenstein"s Mahler 9 with London Symphony, BBC Legends.
Yes, that is also among the best, very powerful, from 1966. I have the Music and Arts issue.
I adore the Chailly DVD from Leipzig, Solti in Chicago, the Bernstein/Concertgebouw, Abbado in Lucerne on DVD and in Berlin with the BPO perhaps at the top of my "tree" - the new Rattle live recording with the Bavarian Radio orchestra is quite magnificent
Mahler 9th is possibly my favorite symphony. Thank you for sharing. Surprisingly my most listened to is Ozawa and the Boston. I find his more restrained approach to soften the devastating blow of it all compared to something like Ancerl (which I also own and love). If you asked me which one sounded best at first I would say Ancerl but to my own surprise Ozawa gets more spin time. I believe it's due to the delicate treatment while still adding weight and tempo where needed along with its pacing while still offering good sound quality. I found this approach to work very well with the 9th. I will have to try Bruno Walter, when I first tried the sound quality turned me off but feel the need to check that off and experience it. I have tried Karajan multiple times and enjoy it. It certainly has its qualities and moments but overall feels clunky and less dynamic for my preference.
All great recordings - the Ancerl is probably my desert island pick. Another great one is Bruno Maderna’s.
Bernstein's Mahler Nine with the NYP is a great performance and is one of best things he ever did in NY.
Solti's LSO Mahler Nine is beautifully played and has gorgeous Decca Kinsway Hall sound engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson.
Claudio Abbado with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Accentus acc 20214) did a very moving 9th on DVD in 2010. The silence at the end is...breathtaking!
Rattle's latest 9th with the Bavarian Radio on BR Klassik is also superb
Subscribed! I started with Barbirolli, then Haitink, Giulini and now Blomstedt. Love the 38 Walter, and he saw Mahler conduct many times. I'm not keen on Rattle's Mahler. Thanks
Thanks for subscribing! There’s a slew of really good 9ths.
Yes, the Rattle Mahler 9 is surprisingly bad. I have the misfortune of having bought it. Gutless and dull, my but it’s miserable!
congrats on making this channel. no snark, lets talk music. depends on the week, but karajan, klemperer, bernstein(concertgebouw), and chailly. tough call, if only one: karajan.
I totally agree about which version of the Walter Mahler 9 from 1938 sounds the best. I have every incarnation of this performance on CD, and this early one from EMI sounds warm and beautiful, as opposed to the clinical sterility of the Dutton and later EMI remasterings that I find to be unlistenable.
Best...hands down....Bernstein/Concertgebouw. there is no equal. A close second might be Karajan BPO...the first one (not the digital remake).
I always thought Karajan's Mahler to be cold and detached. Which is why his recording of the 6th is my favorite. It's the only symphony that can withstand such treatment, IMO.
I think his live 1982 9th is an exception. The studio recording from 1980 is a bit more stale.
I’ll cast my vote to Klemperer for the best Mahler 9th. Levine is not far behind.
The violin solo played by Rose is quite touching. To those who are used to historic recording, this recording is quite good for a live pre-WWII recording. I do prefer his later stereo recording with theColumbia SO (LA Phil for the most part) which is beautifully played. The rehearsal, issued by Columbia is is fascinating.
Rattle Bayerishen Rundfunks. Beautiful and far superior to his previous efforts.
Walter! :) But where is Boulez?
No one ever agrees with me, but my favourite Mahler 9 is by the Sofia Philharmonic with Emil Tabakov.
Dave Hurwitz is presently sticking pins into his Gil Zilkha voo-do doll, while I'll start pushing needles into mine if this guy continues to pronounce 'Curry-arne' as 'Kerry-Ann'!
I thought that was a migraine
@@GilZilkhaI think he's annoyed with your pronunciation of "Karajan" ("CAR-ah-yawn," if that helps).
@@miro.georgiev97
You were always something special to me
Quite independent, never caring
You lost your charm as you were aging
Where is your magic disappearing?
Hey, Carrie Anne, what's your game now?
Can anybody play?
Hey, Carrie Anne, what's your game now?
Can anybody play?
(The Hollies)
@@miro.georgiev97 ...What, "CAR-ah-yawn"?...It's at least 'CAR-re-yarn' (in attempting to find a hybrid further to our dual pronouncements), while in keeping with the German phonic sounding emphasis, the first syllable comes from the back of the throat, while then rising up into the palate - period!
@@goonbelly5841 Bravo! - An absolute tour de force, goonbelly!! 😂 ...So then, as one of the many enquirer's into Herbie's potential Nazi past might have sung when checking out his 1930's party membership, "Hey 'Car-re-ya-n,' what's your game now, can anyone (pretend to) play?"!
You are right to champion the Walter recording further to it having been made in those tense days before the Anschluss, while it can be compared 'emotionally' with the later studio recording of Das Lied von der Erde that Walter made with the dying Kath. Ferrier in 1952...That said, and as I have commented elsewhere on YT, perhaps the most poignant aspect (at least for me) of Walter's pre war Vienna 9th recording are those highly audible - and almost obbligato - cough's coming from the audience, and this in remembering that many in that then live assembly were Jewish, with a lot of them later going on to expend their last desperate breaths in Europe's gas chambers.
Nott & Bamberger is vg.
Karajan was a wonderful Mahlerian, it’s a real pity that he didn’t record all of Mahler’s symphonies.
I would like to add the Concertgebouw Orchestra with Haitink; the CSO with Giulini and Abbado with the BPO to your list.
I have NEVER liked SSRattle’s Mahler recordings, he sucks all the life out of the music.
Oh dear, the Hurwitz sycophants won't like this. Nice to see a proper instrument in the background and not a Tam tam...
There's nothing "improper" about a tam tam.
I don't like the Walter '38, he didn't like it himself. The playing isn't good and the intonation at times is ropey to say the least. It's historically interesting for sure but actually not as good as Walter's remake with the Columbia SO and it's not really that intense in my opinion, if you want intensity go for Bernstein, who was a truly great Mahler conductor, avoid his almost train crash with the Berlin PO, his Concertgebouw is the one to go for (his New York is also pretty special too). Rattle is over hyped especially by the Brits, as is Barbirolli, but Barbirolli was far more musical than Rattle. Rattle is just boring. I agree that Klemperer is wonderful, but what do you expect he knew Mahler! Mahler gave him his first break as a conductor. If I had to choose only one it would be the live Karajan.
Aside from Karajan and Klemperer, we’ll have to agree to disagree on quite a lot, including the Bernstein/Berlin. I think it’s his most riveting version, absent brass moment and all (which wasn’t his fault btw). Welcome to the channel and thanks for listening.
How can possibly the worst ever Mahler 9th recording make anyone's list of the best? The 1938 Walter/Vienna reading is rushed and horribly played (full of mistakes), and the sonics are miserable, even allowing for a live recording of its age. Bruno Walter himself very much disliked it, admitted it was quite awful, and never would have approved it for release.
Well, fortunately not everyone agrees with Hurwitz’s opinion and are able to appreciate the unique tension of this performance. But glad to see you here, Dave!
@@GilZilkha Bruno Walter himself, a bit of an authority on the subject, would certainly agree with Dave. There is a difference between "tension" and just plain sloppy.