a 1973 Jean Martinon M3 from France is being issued

[barry guerrero]

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/4171808

comes with the Lulu Suite.

[James Meckley]

Interesting. Hard to imagine it'll top his live Chicago version from 1967.

James

[hrandall]

Sorry to resurrect an older topic, but in order to keep the discussion more easily searchable, I wanted to mention here that this French release of a Martinon M3 performance is finally going to be available next week from Amazon US:

http://www.amazon.com/Symphony-3-Mahler/dp/B007TV1JC6/

Has anyone heard this yet and have an opinion of it? For a long time it's been available as a MP3 download at Amazon but I held off on purchasing, hoping the CD would become available. Martinon's Chicago rendition of Mahler's Third is one of my very favorites.

There's supposedly a live M8 by Martinon from 1975 floating around on a fly-by-night label and distributor I'd love to track down someday....

Cheers,
Herb

[James Meckley]

Audio snippets from the 1973 French recording are available here:

http://www.grooves-inc.com/jean-martinon-orchestre-national-lortf-mahler-sinfonie-berg-lulu-suite-cd-album-pZZa1-1896364627.html

And a different set here:

http://www.abeillemusique.com/CD/Classique/VEL3160/7619930316018/Cascavelle/Gustav-Mahler-Alban-Berg/cleart-53878.html

Both sound promising. A timing comparison with Martinon's 1967 recording is interesting—the inner movements are remarkably consistent.

Chicago, 1967 – 32:03, 10:06, 16:29, 8:42, 4:05, and 23:26

Paris, 1973 – 34:31, 10:02, 16:28, 8:39, 4:20, and 22:13

I have a feeling the brass in Paris won't quite match the boys in Chicago.

James

[barry guerrero]

I think Martinon was great - highly underrated. There was also a Martinon Cooke M10 (first version) that got issued by the C.S.O., but it seemed a bit like a quick run-through to me. It didn't strike me as being quite as good as the Ormandy, but not bad by any means either.

Barry

[waderice]

I think Martinon was great - highly underrated. There was also a Martinon Cooke M10 (first version) that got issued by the C.S.O., but it seemed a bit like a quick run-through to me. It didn't strike me as being quite as good as the Ormandy, but not bad by any means either.

Barry

Martinon had the misfortune of being the individual to follow the high standards of previous CSO director, Fritz Reiner.  Not that Martinon was a bad conductor, far from it.  Music critic Claudia Cassidy of The Tribune was the one who led the anti-Martinon crusade, which was even more abrasive than that against Reiner, and eventually led to Martinon's resignation and the entrance of Solti.  If you listen to Martinon's commercial recordings he made with the CSO, you'll note that they were well-played, but didn't possess the interpretive insight of Reiner; therefore, there was considerable variety in that respect.  Also, his recordings were made in numerous Chicago venues, because while he was director, Orchestra Hall underwent a major renovation, which eventually ruined its acoustics for recordings.  It's almost a sure bet that what Martinon wasn't able to tape commercially while in Chicago certainly could have made a much better representation of how good he was.  To my ears, the best movement of his CSO M3 was the finale.

Wade

[barry guerrero]

Yes, well Cassidy pretty much chased off Kubelik as well. I think she basically tried to take advantage of genuinely nice people in effort to make herself sound important. Read into that what you will.