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Category: Mahler

Great Conductors of the 20th Century – John Barbirolli

Great Conductors of the 20th Century – John Barbirolli

Great Conductors of the 20th Century was a 2CD series from IMG Artists and EMI featuring famous conductors of the 20th century. As per the norm, the website has disappeared, so here is all the information [and more] that was included for this great series. Includes the only official recording of Barbirolli’s blazing Mahler 2 broadcast from Stuttgart in stereo in 1970 Catalogue no: 7243 5 75100 2 8 (2 CD)   CD1 [76:17] Wagner: Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act 1…

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LP Art: Mahler’s Blumine

LP Art: Mahler’s Blumine

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 With Newly Discovered “Blumine” Movement (From the Version of 1893)
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra Frank Brieff, Conductor
Columbia Odyssey 32 16 0286

Bargain Box: Levine’s Mahler

Bargain Box: Levine’s Mahler

James Levine had a good run of Mahler recordings in the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s, and even won a Grammy for the recording of the 7th. I also had the 5th, 9th and 4th for years, and have enjoyed these interpretations with the Chicago, London and Philadelphia Symphonies. Sony has issued a barebones box set of all of Levine’s Mahler recordings for RCA. Levine did not record the 2nd or 8th at the time for RCA, and since they…

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Scherchen Mahler

Scherchen Mahler

Hermann Scherchen conducting Gustav Mahler. What’s not to like? The Vienna State Opera Orchestra play on this great Westminster recording. I have always thought that my first Mahler 2nd was the Bruno Walter version, but I recall purchasing a single LP version of the second before that. Now, that is a lot of music to pack onto one LP, and the sound was atrocious to say the least. It was a great performance from what I could tell, but the…

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Eugene Ormandy Conducts 20th Century Classics

Eugene Ormandy Conducts 20th Century Classics

I posted a review and some other info at Amazon: This release combines recordings from the RCA and CBS vaults. Ormandy re-recorded many works when the Philadelphia Orchestra moved to RCA in the 1970’s. While not all of these recordings matched the earlier versions, several were better but have been mostly out of circulation for a while. The Shostakovich 5 is a particular favorite of mine, much better than the CBS version. Since there seems to be no real info…

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Starter Collection: Mahler

Starter Collection: Mahler

Walter’s NY Phil recording of Mahler’s ‘Symphony #2 – Resurrection’ was my first experience with Mahler. I found it on a double-length cassette on the CBS Odyssey label [which eventually wore out, replaced with a double-length DG cassette by Kubelik, another great recording]. Something about the work really grabbed me, and I always end up back at this 60’s era recording by Walter. Of course this release has been long out of print, but the same recording is on the…

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And Yet More Bargain Mahler

And Yet More Bargain Mahler

I seem to be on a Mahler kick these days. After recently getting the Levine and Abravenel Mahler sets I stumbled across another one of those mystery download sets of Bruno Walter conducting Mahler. Many of the older 1940’s-50’s classical recordings have gone out of copyright in the UK, and there have been some MP3 releases on the cheap as of late with sketchy details other than the works and orchestra. These are Walter’s Mahler recordings from the 1940’s and…

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Big Mahler Box

Big Mahler Box

Here is another of those unbelievable deals from Amazon. The Bach Guild aka Vanguard Records has released the entire Mahler Symphony recordings by Abravanel and the Utah Symphony for the ridiculous price of $.99. Yep, 13 hours of Mahler for under a buck. If they do like some of the other sets that Vanguard has released, the price will go up to 7-8 dollars eventually, which is still a great deal. I had not heard some of these recordings in…

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