Hiatus Purchases

[Ben]

Well, while the board was on hiatus for awhile, (and now very glad we have a new one, thanks Scott!) I ended up getting the newish Barenboim M7 with the Berlin Staatskapelle.  It ended up being free at Borders through some mixups at the register.  Lucky for me.    This is certainly a phenomenal recording, IMHO.  There are so many wonderful moments and the playing is superb.  Gotta love the horns!  The low brass are great, trumpets sound good...everyone else is really great too.  Like his Beethoven and Schumann recordings with this ensemble, Barenboim makes these studio recordings sound like they're 'live.'  They have so much energy and musicality, there isn't a dull moment.  I'll have to listen a little more to make some comparisons, but the 1st and 5th movements sound perfect.  I really love how Barenboim has the strings play measured notes instead of tremolo at the opening of the 1st movement.  I think it gives it more momentum and direction.

What were others' thoughts on this recording?

I also picked up the new MTT M5.  While a decent recording, it isn't my favorite.  I've been a fan of most of the series, but this M5 has disappointed me.  The playing is good enough, but I thought there were some odd articulation choices.  Also, some weird tempos from MTT.  I'll have to listen more critically to explain why it's disappointing, but I felt much better after listening to my favorite M5, Chailly/RCOA.  The SFSO sounds good, but comparing them to the RCOA is definitely not favorable to them.

Ben

[barry guerrero]

I think the 5th is one of the best in the Chailly cycle, as well as one of the best M5's to have come out in recent years. Your comments about the MTT/SFSO M5 don't surprise me in the least. Frankly, I don't even want to give it a spin. If I'm going to reach for the truly weird or bizarre, I may as well wait until Norrigton's fifth shows up. At least it'll be exciting in spots.

I too really like the Barenboim M7, as I think it's quite satisfying from begining to end. There's a real strong contrast between his two Nacthmusik movements:  the first one being slow, dark, and "creepy" sounding, while the second one is real "sunny" and serenade-like. I also like that the mandolin and guitar are so plainly audible.

Barry

[sperlsco]

I also picked up the new MTT M5.  While a decent recording, it isn't my favorite.  I've been a fan of most of the series, but this M5 has disappointed me.  The playing is good enough, but I thought there were some odd articulation choices.  Also, some weird tempos from MTT.  I'll have to listen more critically to explain why it's disappointing, but I felt much better after listening to my favorite M5, Chailly/RCOA.  The SFSO sounds good, but comparing them to the RCOA is definitely not favorable to them.

Ben

The MTT M5 is easily my favorite M5 on SACD, but that really speaks more to the competition than the MTT M5.  I think DH's review is pretty spot-on, but I am not bothered my MTT's mannerisms nearly as much as DH is.  For example, the second movement's extreme ritard before the brass choral is indeed strange, but doesn't detract from my enjoyment.  The two areas of his review with which I do not agree are with his dislike of the Adagietto and his complaints on the sound.  The Adagietto is faster than most of the recordings that make DH's reference list (Lennie and Levine to name two, and I believe that it is in line with HvK's), and I quite like it.  The sound does seem a little different than others in the series, but it still sounds spectacular to my ears.  I am glad to finally have an M5 on SACD to which I will return (Zander, Nott, Haenchen, Shipway are all bigger disappointments to me -- actually the Shipway is moderately enjoyable). 

Scott

[Ben]

The MTT M5 is easily my favorite M5 on SACD, but that really speaks more to the competition than the MTT M5.  I think DH's review is pretty spot-on, but I am not bothered my MTT's mannerisms nearly as much as DH is.  For example, the second movement's extreme ritard before the brass choral is indeed strange, but doesn't detract from my enjoyment.  The two areas of his review with which I do not agree are with his dislike of the Adagietto and his complaints on the sound.  The Adagietto is faster than most of the recordings that make DH's reference list (Lennie and Levine to name two, and I believe that it is in line with HvK's), and I quite like it.  The sound does seem a little different than others in the series, but it still sounds spectacular to my ears.  I am glad to finally have an M5 on SACD to which I will return (Zander, Nott, Haenchen, Shipway are all bigger disappointments to me -- actually the Shipway is moderately enjoyable). 

Scott

I haven't heard all of those M5s on SACD, just the Zander, and I agree that the MTT is better than him.  I did not like Zander's M5 very much at all.  The second movement ritard on the MTT recording before the brass chorale wouldn't have bothered me so much if he hadn't sped on through the chorale itself.  It just didn't work and made the climax sound perfunctory.  While I can maybe see the rationale for this, not wanting it to sound like the final climax of the symphony, it was just too much.  I also thought the sound on the MTT was different from the rest of the series; it seems to be more reverberant all around.  I thought it sounded quite good.

I won't not listen to the MTT M5, but it won't be one that I return to over and over again.

Ben

[Vatz Relham]

I only bought one Mahler CD while we were in limbo, the Fischer M2.
Very impressive ! I remember Barry saying some very good things about it on the old board.
This recording has it all, performance and sound, in fact I can't find any weakness, even the singers where usually one isn't as good as the other, are very good.

Maybe the ending of the first mvmt is a little too fast, but that's about it, and it would have been nice to have it one one disc.

Vatz