My ultimate reaction to Zinman's M2nd and M3rd

[barry guerrero]

Two thoughts come to mind. First, Mahler was quite pleased with a performance that he had done of it in Basel Cathedral; which, if memory serves, has a pretty decent size organ. Second, when Mahler viewed Niagra Falls, he alleged said, "fortissimo, at last". Where the organ enters fortissimo, along with the "all stops out marking", the chorus is shouting "aufverstehen" in unison. Unless it's an unusually small chorus, I don't think there's much danger of the chorus getting drowned out. Personally, I would rather err on the side of being too loud, than too little.

[sbugala]

Two thoughts come to mind. First, Mahler was quite pleased with a performance that he had done of it in Basel Cathedral; which, if memory serves, has a pretty decent size organ. Second, when Mahler viewed Niagra Falls, he alleged said, "fortissimo, at last". Where the organ enters fortissimo, along with the "all stops out marking", the chorus is shouting "aufverstehen" in unison. Unless it's an unusually small chorus, I don't think there's much danger of the chorus getting drowned out. Personally, I would rather err on the side of being too loud, than too little.

The Niagra Falls story reminds me of an alleged incident at a rehearsal Mahler led as conductor.  He told a percussion player words to the extent of "make it louder." Each time, he hit it as loud as he could, but Mahler wanted more. Finally, he hit it with all his might. Mahler allegedly said, "Good, but tomorrow, make it even louder."

That's why most of the time, I don't buy into the argument Bernstein was too excessive.  It would seem, he's probably more accurate than we'd care to admit.

[John Kim]

I bought the Zinman disc, but on first hearing, I'm not blown away.

Crank up the volume and you'll hear the difference!

Granted, Zinman's is not Earth shattering , but he observes many of Mahler instructirons better than any other conductor I've heard. It is a musically strong, if not overwhelming, sophisticatedly realized version in terrific sound quality (I'd rank the sound among the best).

John,

[barry guerrero]

Yes, I definitely feel that Zinman has sufficient organ here. I like his deep bells.

Barry

[Damfino]

Granted, Zinman's is not Earth shattering , but he observes many of Mahler instructirons better than any other conductor I've heard. It is a musically strong, if not overwhelming, sophisticatedly realized version in terrific sound quality (I'd rank the sound among the best).

It's definitely going to get an in-depth listen. So far, I have only skipped around in it. I could definitely make out the organ, and I agree about the bells. Also, that soprano-up-front-of-the-chorus thing appealed to me as well. However, after playing the full-length Kaplan one the other night, I don't think I can subject the wife to another complete performance so soon.

BTW, one other cool thing about the Kaplan recording: it has a gazillion tracks on it. You can get to any point immediately. He also supplied copious notes on the symphony to correspond with the tracks. Why isn't this done more often for works with really long movements? Mehta's DVD-A does this as well as Litton's 2-channel SACD of the 2nd.

BTW, I also picked up Fischer's SACD from an Amazon seller. However, it appears to be a defective pressing. The sound has some annoying dropouts about 24 minutes into the last movement, and I never got to the "Auferstehen" finale to hear how it sounds. I would attempt to rewind back to the beginning of the dropouts, and it would kick back to the beginning of the disc, which made me have to scan all the way through the movement again to get there, so I just shelved it in disgust until I get a better pressing.