which Mahler Seven?

Herman - not really a proper answer to your question - I have the Philips Haitink/Concertgebouw recording which is from 1982 [may be your mother's, maybe not?] which is not ideal - it seems a little too restrained, somehow - and the sound is a bit dull, but I've only got one of each of the symphonies and as Mahler is probably my favourite symphonist I could do with more interpretations, so like you await other suggestions.

I tend to prefer the even numbered symphonies, especially the eighth which most people seem to regard as a bit kitsch, but which makes me reach for the Kleenex every time. I've never heard a performance of it in a decent acoustic [London hasn't got any] but live in hope [Birmingham?]. I agree - Mahler and the 80's seemed made for each other. Music of excess maybe? From nowhere to a Beethoven toppler in 20 years... then Mozart got him in the 90's.

I was drawn to the box sets I found in my local record library as a teenager in the 60's. Philips & CBS I think ... I imagine this would have been the time that the complete cycle was first being recorded. After initially [and this is a bizarre though common preconception, but cannot imagine why] I had bracketed him with Bruckner, I came to my senses and just had a good wallow. What got me, apart from the emotional content was the subtlety of the orchestration. Barring possibly Ravel [it's a toss-up]I would say that no one has shown greater expertise, but I'm open to offers.

Saw an incandescent performance of the 4th a couple of weeks ago at the RFH [LPO/Elder/Soile Isokoski - creamy Finnish soprano I'd not heard of, who was just right]and have been humming it ever since.... bit like a meringue with broken glass in it. This was part of a Mahler Festival, so some people are still at it - full too.

Throb

I will confess to having only two recordings in my collection at the moment - the early 60's Bernstein and the Boulez. Both conductors deliver what one would expect: Bernstein delivers a heated performance that thrills while Boulez delivers a precise version where everything is clear and has its place. I prefer the Bernstein, though I would not want to be without the Boulez. The CBS sound is not great - and it is definitely manipulated - but this is one of Bernstein's finest Mahler moments. I have not yet heard Abbado's new recording, but it's on my short list to buy next year (along with the Third, too). All three of these conductors are far better Mahlerians than Haitink, whom I find terribly boring.

And Mahler a composer of the 80's? If I'm not mistaken, at least three complete Mahler cycles were recorded in the 60s - Bernstein, Kubelik, and Abravanel - and Haitink started his. Both Walter and Klemperer graced humanity with their final thoughts on their mentor's music, and then there were Horenstein, Barbirolli (blah!), and a numebr of others hitting both the studio and the concert platform on behalf of the great neurotic. I'd like to see some comparative aggregate figures, but the 60s seem to be the Mahler decade, and ever since almost every major conductor has had to perform and record his music to show their conducting mettle.

I agree. The '60's was the decade for Mahler. Mahler was very new (it was for me) and every Bernstein release of a Mahler symphony was eagerly anticipated.

Bernstein - New York Philharmonic on Columbia. Try it. I have mine on original Columbia vinyl.

Paul

Herm-

I love this symphony, too - so much so, that when I was in university, I picked its first movement to conduct for my conducting class final exam. I have the 1984 Abbado Chicago reading on CD, and think it's terrific. I also have the Bernstein version from the cycle he did in the 60s for Columbia, and like it too. I once owned the Solti version from the 60s, which is also very good. But my favorite has consistently been the Abbado. Go for it!

On RCA. A great recording and wonderful sound. Btw, here's a link to the 27 page Mahler symphony review from American Record Guide. You won't be disappointed.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1020/4_64/77197429/p1/article.jhtml?term=%2Bamerican+record+guide+%2Boverview

Mahler Seven Update

This week I got the Abbado 1984 recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and I had the pleasure to be at a live performance of Mahler's Seventh, with Valery Gergiev conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

The Abbado has been praised a lot, and maybe that's why I'm not fully satisfied with ths performance. Let&rsquos put it this way. This symphony was composed from the inside out: first the three inner movements, and then the long opening movement and the finale. The Abbado is great in the outer movements, which call for large forces and agile coordination; it's not so good in the inner movements, which need deft characterization and suppleness. Abbado's Mahler isn&rsquot having any fun; he's an expressionist with fiercely conflicting feelings - and all this is true, but less so in the Seventh, which is more about the conflicts of pleasure than than of pain. The central scherzo is weirdly rushed and the second Night Music is bereft of atmosphere (comparably). The playing is great, but I have to say, very American, in that it's impeccable, but it doesn&rsquot have that Vienna swing.

I jumped at the chance to see (and hear) the notorious Gergiev do the Seventh, and I was pleasantly surprised it was a rather Wienerish Seventh. It&rsquos such a pleasure to see the entire orchestra sitting on the stage, rows and rows of woodwinds, etc, and I expected terrible overkill from the erratic maestro, but there were gorgeous chambermusic-like ensembles all the time (this is of course what makes the Seventh such a beautiful edifice: there is so much chamber music, with small ensembles playing while the rest is just listening in; it&rsquos a very intimate piece of music, and then there are hugely loud moments when it looks like the timpanist is going to impale himself, like that giant bang in the scherzo).

And then I got home and played the Haitink / Berlin again, with which I started this thread, and I have to say, it's pretty good after all. The orchestra is great, the tutti - solo balance is good, and Haitink teases out all the humor and hip swaying fun, that Abbado can't do. The Scherzo is about chaos, and Haitink allows the orchestra to (as it were) fall down and groggily get on its feet again, which is very hard thing to do. Abbado doesn't take those risks. Abbado's 7 is about the marches; Haitink's is about the dark dances. Key perhaps is characterization, that eminently romantic ingredient of music since Schumann (Kreisleriana etc). The music has to embody different characters in very short spaces of time; the Chicago doesn't do that. Maybe I should try and get the early Bernstein now; he obviously was a master at this.

Herman