my next full-price CD purchase will be . . .

[barry guerrero]

Scroll down to the 6 cd box set of RCA Victor recordings of Morton Gould conducting the Chicago S.O.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/newreleases.php?&page=8

[James Meckley]

This CSO box—along with the earlier set featuring Jean Martinon—is a real treasure. I've had it on pre-order since it was first announced and look forward to having new masterings of the Ives and Nielsen in particular, despite Benny Goodman's participation in the clarinet concerto.

James

[AZContrabassoon]

Yes - get both! Gould was a great treasure that too many people ignored until he was gone. I'll get this set - and meanwhile lament that it only contains his Chicago recordings. There are some fine recordings made with "His Symphony Orchestra", like a stellar Grand Canyon Suite, more Copland, and Gould's Fall River Legend. Some has been released on Living Stereo, but it sure would be nice to have everything he recorded for RCA or Sony available in one set. BTW - if you've never read the Gould biography, you should. Quite an amazing musician.

[barry guerrero]

I'm wanting to hear what does with Rimsky's "Antar" in that box!

[AZContrabassoon]

I bought the LP with Antar when it came out because it had Antar - at that time kind of a rare item. Lo and behold, it was the Miaskovsky that was the real treasure. Both works are given superb performances from orchestra and conductor. The Antar is still among the best ever. The Miaskovsky is by far the best version available, not that it has that much competition.

[damianjb1]

Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the 4th Symphony.
I've done a bit of reading and this comes highly recommended by several sources.
I'd be very interested to hear what experienced Mahlerians think?

[barry guerrero]

Thumbs down.  Way too slow overall, and Laura Claycomb sings her dotted eighth/sixteenth note figures as triplets. I HATE that. If you're going to spend that much for an M4 recording, get the Ivan Fischer on Channel Classics.

Not only do I not like the MTT/SFS cycle from a musical standpoint, I really don't think it's all that well recorded either. I think the SFS did far better when they were under the supervision of RCA and - previously - Decca.

[damianjb1]

Thanks for that - much appreciated.
What recordings of the 4th would you recommend (besides the Fisher recording)?

[AZContrabassoon]

My essential Mahler 4s (in no particular order)

1. Paul Kletzki
2. Fritz Reiner
3. Lorin Maazel (Sony)
4. Ivan Fischer
5. Andre Previn (good luck finding a cd)
6. Dohnanyi
7. Kubelik (DG)

The 4th does not lack from fine recordings.

[barry guerrero]

I think choosing a light voiced soprano who can pass for a boy - sort of - is one of the criteria you should look for. Miah Persson is perfect on the Ivan Fischer. Editia Gruberova is quite good on the Sinopoli/DG M4. Ruth Ziesack is really good on the Danielle Gatti/Royal Phil. M4 (Conifer). Frederica von Stade has made two recoridngs of M4, and she's quite good on both of them:  Abbado/VPO (DG) and Yoel Levi/Atlanta S.O. (Telarc). By the way, the Levi/Telarc recording is a very good all-around Mahler 4 and comes with the "Songs of a Wayfarer", also sung by von Stade. It's also very inexpensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphony-No-Songs-Wayfarer/dp/B00000JCIP/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1454993861&sr=1-1&keywords=mahler+4+yoel+levi+telarc

Elly Ameling has made two recordings also, and she's quite good on both of them: Haitink/Concertgebouw (his first one) and Previn/Pittsburgh S.O. (EMI).

These things are greatly a matter of taste, but I'm afraid I'm not crazy about Lisa della Casa on the Fritz Reinier (slightly too operatic); Dawn Upshaw on the Dohnanyi (she's too 'cutesy' with it), or the 'pipey' sounding Kathleen Battle on the highly touted Maazel/VPO (Sony) recording.

Another really excellent M4 recording is, I'm afraid, both expensive and difficult to find: Z. Macal/Czech Phil./M. Kaune (sop)/Exton (Japanese label).

http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/4391

Whatever you do, AVOID Rene Fleming on Abbado's Berlin Phil. remake. She's fine on the Alban Berg songs, but is awful in Mahler 4.

For me, many M4's are ruined by the choice of soprano in the fourth movement. A prime example is the Litton/Dallas S.O. M4 on Delos - which is excellent in the first three movements - but is ruined in the finale by Heidi Grant Murphy.

I wasn't crazy about the Mahler remakes that Haitink made in Berlin (Philips), but Sylvia McNair does a very good job on M4 from that series. As expected, Haitink was just a tad stodgy on that one. But he's surprisingly quite sprite-ly in his LAST M4 on the Concertgebouw's own label (RCO Live), and it features a very good soprano performance from Christine Schaefer. This one is a 'sleeper' (and I'm no great lover of Haitink).

http://www.amazon.com/Symphony-4-G-Mahler/dp/B000TKODEK

Of older vintage recordings Elsi Morison is pretty good on the Kubelik (DG); Natalia Davrath is quite good on the Abravael/Utah S.O. M4 (Vangaurd), and Reri Grist is excellent on the old Bernstein/N.Y./Columbia (Sony) M4. Edith Mathis is a tad matronly, but quite good on the Karajan. She also appears on the Bernstein/V.P.O. dvd of M4, which is coupled to decent performances of M5 and M6.

http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphonies-Leonard-Bernstein-Philharmoniker/dp/B000AC5BES/ref=pd_sim_74_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=517UcFmOfLL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR120%2C160_&refRID=1W3Z0A6KAC236Q221JWB

And if you actually want to hear a true 'boy treble' sing the part, Bernstein employed one on his Concertgebouw re-make on DG.

http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphony-No-Helmut-Wittek/dp/B000001G9E/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1454994402&sr=1-2&keywords=mahler+4+bernstein+deutsche+grammophon

It's interesting, but a boy does struggle with the 'gymnastics' of Mahler's writing.

[damianjb1]

Thank you so much your suggestions. I found the Abbado recording with Von Stade on E-bay for $13 so I'll start with that one. I really appreciate your advice barry guerrero and AZContrabassoon.

[barry guerrero]

I'm not a huge Abbado fan, but I prefer this Vienna M4 to the Maazel. That's probably going against popular opinion.

[AZContrabassoon]

Should also mention that if you want something really odd, the Kondrashin recording has the last movement sung in Russian, then followed by a German version. Kondrashin's Mahler is not to all tastes.

[waderice]

Benjamin Zander's out-of-print Telarc recording employs a boy soprano, whose name I don't have at my fingertips.

Wade

[James Meckley]

Benjamin Zander's out-of-print Telarc recording employs a boy soprano, whose name I don't have at my fingertips.

Ben Zander's Telarc recording features soprano Camilla Trilling in the last movement, a female by all appearances. So far as I know, the only commercial recordings featuring boy sopranos are Bernstein/Amsterdam (Helmut Wittek) and Nanut/Ljubljana (Max Emanuel Cencic). Though Mr. Wittek was a bit out of his element, Mr. Cencic went on to have a significant career as a countertenor.

The violin solos in the Bernstein recording were played by none other than Jaap van Zweden, concertmaster in Amsterdam at the time (June 1987).

James