Vänskä M1

[John Kim]

Still, I quite like Vanska's M1st as I do his M2, M5-6.

[barryguerrero]

I just don't feel the need to search for another M1, because I'm quite satisfied with the Adam Fischer/Dusseldorf one. On dvd, I'm partial to the Fabio Luisi/Dresden Staatskapelle one. I also like both recordings with Ozawa/Boston (DG and Philips). I also like the Jurowski/L.P.O. one as well. We're spoiled for choices.

[Leo K]

Yes, I agree with Barry, I haven't bought an M1 for years as none could match Bernstein's RCO and I'm quite happy with the collection I have. (We're definitely spoiled for choices!)

What a great symphony that I sometimes under rate.

[erikwilson7]

I really like the Bernstein RCO recording, but the second movement is just way too slow for my taste. I like when it falls around 8 minutes, doch nicht zu schnell! I do like that he picks up the tempo at the end of the movement though.

I also like the Ádám Fischer one a lot. There are just two very nitpicky things about it for me, and they're both in the finale: in the first lovely B section, the horn lines are oddly forward (sometimes overpowering the string melody) and their intonation isn't great either. It sort of ruins that section for me. Also the coda, while exciting, isn't tight. I like when those trumpet triplet fanfares are tight, like on the Bernstein RCO and Stenz, among others. Heck, and the Vänskä. The Ádám Fischer has maybe the best M1/III I've heard, with a fantastic first and second movement too.

I think my personal favorite recording of M1 lately has been the Nott/Bamberg, actually. First movement goes fine, second is well-played and well-paced, the third is not too slow and the klezmer stuff is stylized well, and the finale moves along and is played very well. The coda is super exciting.

[erikwilson7]

I'm liking some aspects of the Vänskä M1 a lot, and some things are just a bit off to me. Here are some of my observations as a whole:

Pacing/conducting: weird. An average view of the first movement, and quite a fast second. A slowwwww third, and a broad finale too. There isn't any sort of arch here, it seems arbitrary. I think in terms of pacing the second movement works best (though it is quite fast). The third movement is just paced very strangely to me, and I don't think it works. If Vänskä did more with the klezmer episodes I think this movement would have succeeded. I still prefer the solo double bass in the opening. The finale coda is slow and hardly exciting, like Konsgaard mentioned. I really don't feel frenetic energy there, and I think that has to do with the deliberate tempo and static dynamics.

Sound quality: excellent for the most part, as expected. The string textures aren't as tight as the recordings of M5 and M2; the M2/I and M5/III and V have some of the best string clarity I've ever heard recorded in a Mahler symphony. The trumpets and brass in particular don't shine like a European orchestra (or even the SFSO or Pittsburgh), but they sound darkly hued, if that makes sense. I'm not great at describing strings or brass. As I found with the M5 recording, the crash cymbals also sound dark in timbre. I think those qualities fit the Fifth, but not so much the First here, a lighter and brighter symphony—for the first half at least. I don't know if that has anything to do with the cymbals used or the way this one was recorded. The bass end of the spectrum is fantastic. As I said before, the offstage trumpets in the first movement are phenomenally captured.

Performance: top-notch, as usual. I think that's a result of extreme drilling and refinement, however. Possibly editing too. I don't want to discredit the Minnesotans though because they really are excellent players. Essentially every orchestral detail is present.

If anything, the value I find in this recording is that it'd be a good one to follow along to the score with. Maybe not for tempi, but for studying the actual notes. I think that goes for all the Vänskä recordings so far.

[ChrisH]

The trumpets and brass in particular don't shine like a European orchestra (or even the SFSO or Pittsburgh), but they sound darkly hued, if that makes sense.

In the Minnesota Symphony the trumpet section plays Monette trumpets. They produce a very dark hued and diffuse sound. A very different beast than rotary and piston trumpets, for sure. Other than the old Boston section with Charles Schluter,  I don't know of any other orchestra that uses these trumpets.