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General Category => Gustav Mahler and Related Discussions => Topic started by: barryguerrero on February 03, 2021, 11:18:30 PM
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The first 250 to purchase a copy through the Minnesota Orch. will get their copy autographed by Osmo Vanska. What the heck! - I want to support this project, even though I need yet another Cooke III like a hole in my head. Total cost with shipping is $26. I'm hoping they'll eventually finish this cycle.
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That's one heck of a deal! I'm still holding onto hopes that the M3 will be surprisingly good. Someday...
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Yeah, not bad. I have Amazon Prime, so good-old Amazon would have been have been a bit cheaper. But then again, I'm getting really annoyed with Jeff Beezos.
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I grabbed a copy too. Now, I've got to make my way through all that has been released so far.
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A Japanese buyer gave it a rave review:
"It's a really great performance. Concentration, analysis, empathy, all of which are highly evaluated. Vänskä seems to have given the Frankenstein, who is full of patches, not only a life but also a heart to admire with a flower. In this case, Mahler in the shade of the grass must forgive it with a bitter smile."
John
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Sounds fantastic. Makes me look forward to their M9.
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Hi all,
I've listened to this M10 this morning, through Primephonic (my cd-collection is stored at my parents' house for some 6 months, because we're moving house in April, so I granted myself a premium Primephonic-account :)).
I wasn't able to listen with great attention - working at home while in lockdown with my wife and kids doesn't help focussing - but my first impression was that this is a worthwhile addition to the Vänska Mahler series and to my M10-collection.
I'm curious to know what you guys think of it after listening.
Cheers,
Freddy
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I was listening to parts of it too last night! On Idagio. Lossless FLAC. It reminds me a lot of the Gielen M10, and pretty much just as good. I’ll have to hear the whole thing straight through.
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The playing in the middle three movements is astounding to me. Especially the coda of movement 2 when Vänskä accelerates. Those trumpets!
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Vänskä only holds the very last chord for like 6 seconds. I wonder why he’s in a rush to cut off Mahler’s very last notes.
I really like how Chailly and Nézet-Séguin hold it for like 20 seconds and let it fade to nothing.
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>> Vänskä only holds the very last chord for like 6 seconds. I wonder why he’s in a rush to cut off Mahler’s very last notes.
--> Could it be an editing issue?
Karajan/BPO/DG Mahler 9 (live) also abruptly cuts off at the end of the Adagio (IV). For me it nearly ruins the entire movement.
John
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This is very, very good. However, I can only be so enthused about another, yet, very good Cooke III. I still think it's dumb to link the last two movements with two, separate solo bass drum strokes. I don't care if Mahler wrote down 11 solo bass drum strokes, as in Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring". Some creativity is needed there. Do the first one waaay offstage and loud. Then do the second one onstage and softer. If you don't like that idea, switch 'em around. Mix and match. Don't just sit there and keep walloping the bass drum over and over. Tailor the strokes to match where the music is going to.
Just speaking for myself, I hear the passage in the finale, beginning at 20:20 and going to about 20:45, as being loud - really loud (not soft), as in the Samale/Mazzuca version. That's just me. I've thought that from the very first time I heard the Ormandy recording, back in the mid 1970's.
As for the length of the final note, I don't care so much. The dude is already dead by that point. Sure, a bit longer would have been nicer. I agree that it MUST be longer at the end of M9.
Now here's a crazy idea you really won't like: I would end M10 with a volley of offstage cowbells. Lots of them - located waaay offstage, so that you get a more realistic effect. I'd let 'em tinkle away for a good 10 seconds. I might even discretely pipe them in through the sound system (softly!), so the audience can have the feeling of being enveloped by distant cowbells. Think of the ending of the Ives 4th symphony (it's magical!).
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Barry I agree. I’m sure Mahler would’ve done something differently had he actually completed it.
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It’s funny, Vänskä continues to be particularly good in scherzos. True for every recording so far.
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Yep.
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This is an excellent addition to the ongoing Vanska/MO Mahler cycle, extremely well played and recorded. Indeed, the playing is not only precise but passionate and fired up (listen to the ending of Scherzo 1 (II)!). Interpretively, Vanska hardly does anything new but he succeeds in molding the great architecture out of the incomplete score (completed by Cooke) offering as cogent a view as one can imagine of the composer's last work.
NOTE: Like Erik I am a bit disappointed Vanska doesn't hold the last chord of Finale long enough leaving little to linger on after such a heartbreaking coda is over. A shame (but it could be an editing mistake).
John
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I don't view it as being anything quite like the ending of M9. To me, everything after the high strings make their huge, ascending glissando, is pretty much the end of the piece. In short, it doesn't bother me so much. . . . . . And again, if it were me in charge, I would end it with offstage cowbells chiming away for 7 to 10 seconds - tons of them, really far off, and possibly discretely piped through the hall's sound system to obtain a more surround effect.
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That’s a fun idea! Reminds me a bit of Shostakovich 15...
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Check out the end of the Ives 4th. Although, it's not cowbells that he uses.
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I just received my copy of this disc in the mail. No autograph. Just the discs in their cardboard sleeves. Curious to know if I missed the 250 person cut off, which honestly, I would find hard to believe. Or, if anyone else has gotten one with an autograph?
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Mine came w/o the autograph too. I guess posting on FaceBook did the trick for them. I still want to support the project. M9 will be next, someday.
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How do you know M9 will be the next release? What about 3? I’m sure 8 will be last.
Any chance they recorded anything during the pandemic?
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I heard they canceled M3rd concert in March(?). But the M9th concert in July is still effective.
John
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Exactly. Let's hope they can do the July program. They probably want to be very sure about 'normalcy' before booking M3 or M8, because of having to book guest vocalists. Frankly, I'd like for them to really be 'back in shape' before taking on M3 or M8. My gut tells me this cycle is going to end with a bang, but I could just as easily be wrong.
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Yeah, I don’t know. Considering how much of a wildcard Vänskä’s Mahler can be the 8th could get a clinical and sterile treatment à la Tilson Thomas or Jansons. I have no doubt he’ll deliver on tam-tams though.
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Only time will tell . . . a LOT of time.
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Having only listened to Vanskas 1st and 5th, I found this 10th to be the best of the 3. Vanksas ideas about Mahler seem to work very well with this symphony. The sound he gets from his orchestra fits the world of the 10th much better than the 1st or 5th. I also really dig the sound of the Monette trumpets here, though I wonder if he played the entire work on C, or for certain moments played on a D. Manny Laureano studied will Bill Vacchiano, the old principal trumpet of the New York Phil; he played on all the early Bernstein Mahler. Vacchiano was big proponent of playing D trumpet in on the majority of the orchestral rep.
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I definitely agree with you on the Vanska M10. I already said this earlier in the thread, but I was wowed by the trumpet playing in the second movement.
Question about the early Bernstein M5. The opening trumpet part sounds a bit funky. Is it his playing and they just said “screw it, let’s roll with it,” or is it the sound quality? I know that recording is considered to have the poorest sound quality of the set. The trumpet intro sounds warbly, so I thought it was the sound quality.
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Vachianno had different type of vibrato. It's somewhat similiar to the Russian style, but doesn't have the bite. Frank Kaderabak in Philadelphia also had a very interesting vibrato, too.
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. . . and for that reason, I'm not a huge fan of Philly during the era when Kaderabak was principal.
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. . . and for that reason, I'm not a huge fan of Philly during the era when Kaderabak was principal.
I'm with you on this one. But, that trombone section with Dodson, Alessi, and Kleinhammer was one the best ever. Interesting side note, those 3 trombonists, along with Roger Blackburn 4th/utility trumpet, formed a barber shop quartet and competed. Joe Alessi talks about it on a couple of different brass podcasts.
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That's awesome!