Best live Mahler concerts you heard

[sbugala]

I tried a post yesterday for this, and just didn't end up liking it, so I deleted it and started again.  I think the toughie is I loved almost all of them at the time. I don't know what I'd think now, except that the Slatkin M2 I heard in the 90's was just so-so (with those weird Rattle-like touches during the opening measures); and a pretty lackluster Macal M5. I'll be curious to hear the Vonk M4 when it's released this fall on Pentatone.

All are with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra unless otherwise noted. So, here's the list in the order heard:

-M9 Slatkin 1993
-M10 (Mazzetti) Slatkin 1994
-M3 Slatkin, singer Maultsby 1994
-M5 Slatkin 1995
-M1 Slatkin 1996
-M5 Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Symphony Orchestra on tour at Powell Hall 1996
-M4 Vonk/Barbara Hendricks 1996
-M1 Vonk 1997
-M6 Welser-Most 1998
-M7 Slatkin 1998
-M5 Vonk 1999
-M3 Vonk 1999 singer Maultsby again!
-M7 Welser-Most 2000
-M2 Vonk 2001
-M4 Vonk 2002 (Esther Heideman, singer)
-M5 Macal 2003
-M2 David Robertson 2004
-M7 Alan Gilbert 2004
-Das Lied von der Erde, Robertson, 2005 (Michelle De Younge, Stuart Skelton)

I missed chances in recent seasons to hear Pinchas Steinberg do the 1st, and Libor Pesek do the 4th, but friends said both weren't great performances.  Who would've thought I would've heard the 7th 3 times!

Regards,
Steve

[alpsman]

and died conducting Mahler if I remember correctly.

Polarius T you are right.
Mitropoulos died during a rehearseal of  M3 in the first bars of the second movement, in Milan with the orchestra of La Scala.
I have seen the page where the oboist of La Scala, have noticed that in this point maestro Mitropoulos fell down.

A month earlier Mitropoulos had conduct the Vienna philharmonic, in M9. It's a recording in the Andante box with Bruckner8(Karajan) and Heldenleben(Bohm), but the sound as with all Mitropoulos recordings is not good-actually really bad. But the atmosphere is tremendous.

[Don]

The best (most memorable):

Klemperer M2 1971

The worst:

Allsopp M9 and M10 recently in Poole with the Bournemouth SO - it pains me to say it after the sexist controversy a while ago, but she just couldn't find the thread of eith

I heard Alsop's 10th on a BBC rebroadcast. Nothing special for sure.

[je-b]

These would be my favorite live Mahler performances (in no particular order):

Barenboim / Staatskapelle Berlin - M5 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Barenboim / Staatskapelle Berlin / Fritz, DeYoung - DLvdE (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Barenboim / Staatskapelle Berlin - M1 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Jansons / RCO - M6 (Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg)
Jansons / RCO - M1 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Abbado / Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Larsson - M3 (Royal Albert Hall, London)
Gilbert / DSO Berlin - M6 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
DeWaart / DSO Berlin - M7 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Rattle / BPO - M9 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Rattle / BPO / Koczena, Isokoski - M2 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Rattle / BPO - M10 (Cooke) (Philharmonie, Berlin)

Worst (i.e. most boring ever):
Mehta / BPO - M7 (Philharmonie, Berlin)

Also disappointing:
Eschenbach / Philadelphia Orchestra - M1 (Stadthalle, Braunschweig)
Maazel / NYPO - M5 (Stadthalle, Braunschweig)

[Leo K]

I envy you all!!!

I have not heard many Mahler performances (I generally don't enjoy live concerts, because of crowds, and my hearing is actually pretty bad in a live setting), but a few are quite memorable:

de Waart/Minneapolis Orchestra- M7-(Ordway, St. Paul, MN)

Foster/Aspen Festival Orch - Das Lied von der Erde (Aspen, CO)...can't recall the singers at the moment.  The rehearsal was even better than the performance.


--Todd

[alpsman]

I generally don't enjoy live concerts, because of crowds,

Yes the crowds is a problem, espesially in works like M9,M6 or M2 or DLVDE, where  someone longs desperatelly ( me at least), to be alone to sob, cry or meditave.
Then there is the problem with all these morons who burst into wild apllause and shoutings immediatelly after these works or Tchaik.6 or Liebestod or Wintereisse or......This way they confirm that they understanded nothing at all, and they exhibit only  their knowledge that the piece ends.

But the experience of the live event as sound and effort of the musicians( players and maestro), is unbeatable.

[stillivor]

The ones that spring to mind:-

My first ever live  - M1/LSO/Solti (1965)

M3/Horenstein (I was also at the Unicorn recording sessions)

M7/Bernstein (c.1967)

M7/Horenstein (Proms 1970)

M6/Barbirolli (Proms '65 and '67 - the latter was better brass)

M9/Boulez (BBC studios, maida Vale c.69)

M2/do you know, I can'r remember!!! (RFH, c.66 - the most blown-away by a performance)

M6/James Blair - Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra. I cried and cried for about 10 minutes, into a girlfriend's arms. got blair's aurograph, went home, and cried a load more.

Don't think I'm ever disappointed, tho the Kensington (suburb of inner West London) SO (c.71) was technicallt the worst, but I loved hearing Mahler thru the buzz-saw.