Somebody traded in the Mitropolous Mahler 8 (Orfeo) at one of the places that I work. Yiiiiiiiiikes! There are some fabulous moments, and some truly awful moments. Mitropolous clearly knew the work really well, as he changed tempi often (and rather creatively, at that). Sometimes good-old Dmitri is just way off base. For example: the very beginning of the first big tenor solo in Part 2 - he's just absurdly fast there! As is often the case with earlier VPO recordings, one gets the impression of a truly great (French)horn section being surrounded by an average orchestra that's just along for the ride. In spots, the VPO trombones truly belt their parts right out there. In other spots, they're not so great (same can be said of the trumpets). As with SO MANY "historical" Mahler recordings, there's a fair amount mis-counting: missed entrances; notes held for the wrong duration, etc. The first entrance of the harmonium (chamber organ) in Part 2 is painful - it's so out of tune!!! The concert organ sounds small, fake, and wheezy - all at the same time. All of this is too bad, because some of the solo singing in Part 2 is quite good. Yet, those same singers completely over-sing their parts in Part 1 - go figure! On the whole, I have to give this a big thumbs-down. But still, there are some very good moments as well.
What's truly interesting, is that it appears that Pierre Boulez copied some of Mitropolous' ideas such as the slow and grand ending to Part 1.
Topic: Tonight's relisten to Mitropolous/VPO M8 (oi vey!) (Read 8201 times)