Brief Historical Recordings Article at Artsjournal

[Russ Smiley]

A friend brought to my attention this interesting article, What Historical Recordings Can Tell Us about "Authentic" Performance, by Henry Fogel:

http://www.artsjournal.com/ontherecord/2009/01/what_historical_recordings_can.html

It mentions a Mengelberg M4 from 1939 that is available at Pristine Audio.

http://pristineclassical.com/LargeWorks/Orchestral/PASC055.php

There's a sample of the fourth movement.

[barry guerrero]

I would go so far as to say that Mahler 4 doesn't at all belong to the list of the other works mentioned. Further more, if Mengelberg's conducting of M4 is supposedly a copy of what Mahler himself did (I seriously doubt it), then I don't like how Mahler himself conducted it. On the other hand, I have no complaints about the playing of the Concertgebouw, even that far back in time. But some have even stated that Mengelberg didn't conduct Mahler 4 that way in the previous decades.

[Russ Smiley]

When I read Fogel's article I also thought about Bruno Walter.  I am not a scholar of historical performances, but I do own the piano rolls recording of Mahler playing and thought them fascinating.  From the (admittedly) few recordings that I've heard of Walter conducting Mahler's compositions, I would not have connected him, Mahler's friend (and progete?), to the fellow who sat at the recording piano in 1905.  However, based on that sample of the Mengelberg's M4 at Pristine Audio's site, I could connect him to the Mahler on the Welte-Mignon piano rolls.  I suspect that the recordings are at best indicative but probably not conclusive.

To Barry's point "that Mengelberg didn't conduct Mahler 4 that way in the previous decades" is easy to accept based on my examination of M6 and M9 timings by modern conductors who have mutiple CDs in the catalog.