Haitink/BPO Mahler 9th (December 2017) now available on Idagio

[John Kim]

I. 31'06"
II. 17'22"
III. 15'22"
IV. 25'49"


Grand, noble, elegiac, this is Haitink at his finest. 

[John Kim]

Petrenko's 6th, Rattle's 7th are also available.

[erikwilson7]

John, I’ll let you be the ultimate judge of how good any Mahler 9 is.
I listened to snippets of this new Haitink M9 and it sounds mostly very good, but I don’t think I like the third movement. It’s sooooo slow and it sounds like the Berliners are falling asleep.
They aren’t, of course, because the following finale is wonderful. Maybe I just need to listen to it more.

[John Kim]

Erik

I know what you mean, but I didn't feel it that way slightest bit. Klemperer too took III. just as long (longer?) as Haitink did he too did it very well.

John

[erikwilson7]

I do like Chailly's and Gielen's relatively slow accounts of the Rondo-Burleske. I feel that if it's going to be a bit slower, it should also be heavier. That said, I still prefer it fast like Nott takes it (amazing!).

[barryguerrero]

While I'm not a huge fan of Bernstein's Concertgebouw recording of M9 (DG), that Rondo-Burlesque is also amazing. The fastest I know is with Svetlanov.

[John Kim]

Barry,

Svetlanov took just over 10 min. for III. in his recording with het Residentie Orkest.

John

[erikwilson7]

I hope either of the Dudamel recordings are next. If they're anything like what I've been reading about elsewhere, those should be the highlights of the set.

[barryguerrero]

I keep telling people that Dudamel's Mahler is better than they think it is. I really don't care any more - Mahler's place is very secure in the world of musical history. People can run around parroting each other all they want.

[erikwilson7]

Like every conductor, Dudamel has had hits and misses. Like his LA Phil M1.
But when he hits, he hits hard:

His Symphony of a Thousand on video
His Venezuela M7
His NYPO M5 (bootleg)

Some of the best out there.

[sbugala]

I have a free month of Quboz, so I was able to listen to the high res download. I think it's superb, overall. The climax in the 1st movement has plenty of impact...but might not be spotlighted enough for us fiends who love an almost nuclear impact with the tam tam and low brass. However, it's probably more the way it should sound in concert; and I was fine with it. I was more disappointed by the nearly inaudible bells (plates?). It's like Haitink imported the ones the Concertgebouw Orchestra used. Otherwise, tempos didn't bother me. I liked prominent tympani, too.

And I liked it enough upon initial listening to snag it on Amazon for $1 a track. The hi res version on Quboz is nice, but getting it for a reasonable price is good, too.

[erikwilson7]

Sbugala, spot-on with your description of the first movement. I had pretty much the exact same thoughts. The deep bells in Haitink's BRSO recording from 10 years ago sounded much better. I still think Chailly's Concertgebouw recording might have the best sounding deep bells of anyone.

Seems like I just need to get used to the slower tempo of the third movement. I think the second movement and finale are particularly excellent.

[barryguerrero]

This is still a bit of a shoulder shrugging, "who cares!" for me. The B.P.O. already has a boat load of really good Mahler 9 recordings. The Rattle M7 is good (not great). The Petrenko M6 is good (not truly great). I don't particularly care about Harding's M1, nor Nezet-Seguin's M4 (unless he has a really good vocalist). I already own a DVD of a great M2 with Nelsons/Vienna Phil. at Salzburg. Therefore, I'm still hinging my decision of possibly purchasing the download of this set upon Dudamel's M3 and Rattle's M8 (which has John Botha!) - neither of which I can hear at this point.

[erikwilson7]

It's interesting that they chose performances with very normal tempos and durations, and then this Haitink M9 is one of the longest in the entire catalogue. A bit extreme if you ask me, so I don't think it's the best choice for this being a sort of 'introductory set' to Mahler newbies. It's a very moving Ninth, but certainly an outlier in this set with almost Maazel-ian tempos (Maazel's Philharmonia recording still holds the record for longest M9, I believe, clocking in at over 95 minutes). It's funny, Maazel's tempos are so extreme that you can compile a cycle where Maazel's record breaking M8 and M9 (97' and 95', respectively) are longer than an average recording of M3 by someone else.

Rattle did a fantastic Ninth with the BPO in Taiwan in 2011 (it's on the BPO's digital archive). Maybe they were actively avoiding too many conductor repeats for this BPO cycle, and Rattle's also the only person who's conducted 7 and 8 in the last 10 years. Options were probably limited.

[erikwilson7]

K. Petrenko is conducting Mahler 9 next week with the BPO. That's probably going to be good.

Perhaps they could've waited another 6 months before releasing this set?

I'm glad we still have this new Haitink recording, not that we needed a third (fourth?) M9 from Haitink.