Carnegie Hall Mahler Symphony Sequence

[Jot N. Tittle]

Hello??

Does no member of the Bored live near enough to New York City to attend the Barenboim/Boulez Staatkapelle Berlin series of performances in Carnegie Hall, now almost complete? And to let the rest of us know what they are like? 

Hope there is someone who will fill the rest of us in.

     . & '

[Don]

I don't live near NYC but I am traveling there this weekend for some of them. So I will report on the 8th, 9th, DLvdE and 10th adagio.

[barry guerrero]

I saw a review in the N.Y. Times covering the first four symphonies. It truly was not very informative, or terribly well written either. It wasn't Tomassini (who's really good). He basically said that the orchestra sounded a bit tired to him, and that there had been some problems in the brass. But then he really rather praised the performances of M3 and M4. I don't know - it was hard to read between the lines, much less get an idea of what things truly sounded like.

Perhaps doing all of the Mahler symphonies in a short festival simply isn't a great idea - I don't know. For the Staatskapelle Berlin, this is their THIRD complete cycle!

[Dave H]

You can find my review of the Eighth at CT.com today. I'm also covering Das Lied and 9 tonight and tomorrow.
Hope you're all doing well!
Dave H

[Russ Smiley]

That good?  Yikes!

[Don]

I must have been in a different hall. But what do I know?? I am just a rube from the Midwest who got caught up in all the noise.

[barry guerrero]

I just get the impression, based upon David's reviews (and others), that Carnegie Hall - good as it is for most things (personally, I love the place) - must be too small do to do a bang-up job with Mahler 8. For one thing, you've got to haul in an electronic organ, which, to my ears, rarely sounds good. Then you have to extend the stage out, but there's still limited space for large choral forces. I'm sure Bernstein could have pulled it off, but he probably could have whipped up a great M8 in a high-school gymnasium.

Barry

[chalkpie]

I saw M6 with Boulez/Berliner Staatskapelle at Carnegie. Overall, it was a tremendous performance, but not picture-perfect. The brass had some intonation issues at points, but that was a few mere warts on an overall inspired performance. The hammerblows were mighty  - the way I wish Msr. Boulez would have insisted on his DG recording. A colleague of mine has a daughter in the cello section, so it was great seeing her perform in this orchestra. It was also the first time I saw Boulez conduct and he did a masterful job, and I felt quite lucky to finally see him conduct live.