i need some advice please. i want to buy a DVD of mahler 2nd for my friend’s birthday. he is into electronic music but like stravinsky, mahler and bruckner etc. i need a really good quality recording with good conductor. also, we both dont like the fat women singers (i hate their voices for some reason). this sounds like a bizarre request, but i really would be grateful if someone could recommend a good vid for me to order.
Gruff
Well, I haven’t seen complete video of it, but Bernstein looks like a good choice…
amazon.com/Mahler-Symphonies … B000AC5BEI
Plus the price is really acceptable…
abbado haf zolid interp n wikid zound alzo
the bernstein is great but it is a bit old quality. also, one more thing i need is the lyrics. i am aware of the Rattle vid having them, but im wondering if there is a better version out there with the lyrics.
This is one of my favorite pieces, and I have been collecting DVD performances. I can say that by far the best in terms of picture quality, sound quality, and performance, the Abbado version from Lucerne is the best. There is something truly mystical about the performance, and it is the one that I return to over and over.
I might add that while the Bernstein version has its good moments, especially in the final movement, there is a heavily-edited quality to the film direction, which means we never see the entire orchestra all at once, and we never see the first violins, and we never see the chorus until the final movement, which is strange, because they are a few feet behind the orchestra. The point is, its very distracting, because it’s all closeups in a piece with huge orchestrations.
thank you for your recommendation. do you know if the abbado has subtitles?
Randomly what are peoples’ favourite recordings of this piece?
Mine are Walter, Klemperer, Kubelik-live and Mehta. The Abbado vid is wonderful also.
(Gruff, if I recall correctly, the DVD has subtitles in more than a few languages)
Rattle did good job, too… Btw. there is now very cheep box in sale of complete Mahler - Rattle
performing this piece is an amazing experience (on violin for me). I interned with a fairly badass orchestra with a CSO brass player as conductor, and the outcome was surprisingly good.
I have heard the Rattle set. As far as complete sets go, I’ll take Bertini over Rattle any day.
Have to check Bertini - I admit that I’ve never heard any of his recs…
btw. guys, since we are speaking about Mahler (I’m not too familiar with all his symphonies), which are your fav recs of each symphonies and complete set?
Two very different sets are first class:
Bernstein DG
Haitink Phillips (first set)
The best route is individual performances, though.
I tend to prefer the early Bernstein cycle… not quite sure why, they’re both fantastic.
Anyway, here’s a list of the Mahler recordings I keep on my mp3 player. (I don’t claim to be any sort of Mahler Connoisseur, but I’ve listened to a lot of recordings and these are the ones that I like the best.)
Mahler 1 - Walter, Ancerl, Kubelik-live
Mahler 2 - Walter, Klemperer, Mehta
Mahler 3 - Horenstein, Bernstein-Sony
Mahler 4 - Szell, Walter, Horenstein
Mahler 5 - Bertini, Solti, Bernstein-DG
Mahler 6 - Szell, Horenstein-BBC, Bernstein-DG
Mahler 7 - Tilson-Thomas-RCA, Kubelik-DG, Klemperer (I know it’s slow as hell, but I like it)
Mahler 8 - Bertini
Mahler 9 - Ancerl, Walter
Mahler 10 - Rattle
and for Das Lied I like Klemperer best
If anyone wants me to post any of these, I’d be happy to accommodate.
thanks for the recommendations all. I have listened to all mahler symphonies, but i am still too inexperienced to decide which conductors a prefer. symphonies like the 2nd and 8th are just so magnificent that most recordings seem to satisfy me. having said that, i very much prefer the mahler 6th conducted by szell that was uploaded to my other recordings.
i chose the abbado to my for my friend. also, i was friends with his abbado’s son, so it makes a bit more sense to me 