"it goes without saying that the included "Death and Transfiguration", recorded very late in his life (2001), is totally superb. Everything the Mahler recording is lacking is suddenly there and there's an elegance and noblesse to the playing (strings particularly) that must be heard to be believed."
Probably because he was smart enough to just stand there and let them play it. This team's "Alpine Symphony" is very much that way. It's also excellent, with Sinopoli not intervening in the slightest.
I don't think that I want to bother with this M9 either. In fact, I've decided that I don't even like the Mahler 9th - I like the Bruckner 9th much more (sans finale). I only like the Mahler 9th done as an expressionistic horror show ala Klemperer or Giulini. Or, I like for the first three movements to be performed as a prelude to the fourth movement, ala Abbado/BPO (or Masur/NYPO to a lessor degree). One other way that I like it done, is just incredibly loud ala Karajan. Then again, I like the Chailly/RCOA recording of it as well. Come to think of it, maybe I really do like the Mahler 9th, but just not as much as Bruckner 9.
Bruckner should have left finales off of all his symphonies, except the third and fifth (maybe the 8th too - when it's done fantastically well). The Bruckner 4th should drop the slow movement, since the finale has adagio aspects to it. Bruckner 6 needs to keep its finale, but needs a huge cut in the middle of it. Same for Bruckner 7. In fact, maybe it should all get edited into one truly great Bruckner symphony.
The same is true for all those goofy Richard Strauss tone poems. You should start with the fanfare from "Zarathustra"; segue into the development section from "Tod und Verklaerung"; throw in the horn calls from "Don Juan"; add the windmill passage from "Don Quixote"; go to the "summit" passage from the "Alpine Symphony"; replace the storm sequence with the "battle" scene from "Ein Heldenleben", and finish with the finale from "Sinfonia Domestica". That would make for a great Straussian tone poem.
