I wonder how much more of the Vanska and Bychkov cycles I'll end up buying (?).

[barryguerrero]

.   .    .  just because I want to help support those projects. The remaining items in Vanska's cycle are M9 (coming soon), M8 and M3. Out of those three, I'm guessing I'll want possibly both the M8 and the M3. In that case, perhaps it would be smarter for me to wait for an eventual box of the entire cycle (and sell off or donate the individual ones I already have).

I wonder if the same thing may be true with Byckov?  .    .   .  I saw him give an outstanding M6 with the Vienna Phil. If his Czech Phil M6 turns out to be just as good, I may very well want that. I'd probably want their M7 as well, as that's a Mahler symphony the C.P.O. really excels at (for obvious reasons). Perhaps I should wait and get the box set of this series as well.

I'd like to show support to these labels by buying at some of the issues.

[John Kim]

The Vanska M9th is due out May 20.

John

[barryguerrero]

I'm more interested in how Vanska's M8 and M3 turn out. I just got the Rattle/BRSO M9, and I'm quite happy with that.

[erikwilson7]

I’ve gotten to the point where I just get box sets of it’s a cycle, and occasionally collect one-offs like the Rattle M9 you got if they’re really good.

[barryguerrero]

That makes a lot of sense. My problem is that by the time a box set comes out, I'm already half-way committed to the single issues. Oh well!   .    .   .  it's a nice problem to have.

[erikwilson7]

You can never have too much Mahler 

until it makes you broke, of course.

[Roland Flessner]

I’ve been an Idagio customer for over a year now. The Bychkov CPO M4 and M5 are on the service, as is (apparently) just about all of the BIS catalog, including the Vänskä Mahler released thus far.

For those who may be unfamiliar, Idagio is a classical streaming service that is available in free, standard, and premium accounts. The standard account is 9.99/month. The premium adds access to live concert recordings. The entire catalog, which is vast, is available with a free account, though you’ll often hear a tasteful promo for a paid account between tracks. I’m on the standard account.

Idagio claims to be more fair to artists than other streaming services because they pay by the second, not by track. Makes sense for classical since one track may be 30 minutes or an hour, depending on the recording.

I’d guess the income to artists is still quite small, but if I buy a used CD, they get $0. Idagio has cut my classical CD budget down to a small fraction, though I still buy jazz and bluegrass/acoustic string CDs (almost all used). In the interest of full disclosure, I just ordered the Nott/Bamberg Mahler set because I had credit card bennies that paid for it all.

You can listen to Idagio on a web browser, a Windows executable, or on an Android or iOS device. The executable looks and works just like the browser, and I just use the latter, which never nags for updates. On mobile, you can download for offline listening.

One gotcha is that playback is gapless on mobile OSs, but not on desktop. Obviously, hiccups in music that is supposed to be uninterrupted is a problem. While I usually listen from a Linux PC, I’ll switch to mobile when necessary, such as in M8 II, which is almost always divided into a number of tracks.

With all that out of the way, I listened to Vänskä’s M6 the other night and found that it’s a strong performance that checks just about all of my boxes—a 24-minute first movement that moves with granitic power instead of sounding rushed, atmospheric cowbells, second violins on the right, top-level orchestral execution and sound quality, and so on. My high regard for this recording surprised me, because I heard M6 live in Minneapolis before the recorded cycle started and found it a noisy mess. I bought the FLAC download of their M5 but didn’t care for it. I’ll be revisiting that and exploring the others in the cycle.

[barryguerrero]

That Vanska M5 has a very good finale, though. The Vanska M6 has grown on me, but still isn't quite a first choice for me.

[sbugala]

For those who may be unfamiliar, Idagio is a classical streaming service that is available in free, standard, and premium accounts. The standard account is 9.99/month. The premium adds access to live concert recordings. The entire catalog, which is vast, is available with a free account, though you’ll often hear a tasteful promo for a paid account between tracks. I’m on the standard account.

If I might ask...what are the live concerts like? Depending on the orchestras, that could be quite a good lure for me. Could you give a couple examples?

[erikwilson7]

I love Idagio. I used the service for about a year. I don't currently use it, but I'd highly recommend it for those who use streaming. Especially for the streaming and download quality which is CD-quality FLAC.

I also hear that Apple is going to be releasing a classical streaming app at some point based on the old Primephonic app (a classical app like Idagio that was bought out by Apple), so I'll likely be checking that out and comparing it to Idagio to see which one I like better.

I hear that Presto just launched a classical streaming app as well, but I haven't looked into it.

A big deal for me was Idagio's equitable royalty service as Roland mentioned. That's very important for composers like Mahler.

[Roland Flessner]

For those who may be unfamiliar, Idagio is a classical streaming service that is available in free, standard, and premium accounts. The standard account is 9.99/month. The premium adds access to live concert recordings. The entire catalog, which is vast, is available with a free account, though you’ll often hear a tasteful promo for a paid account between tracks. I’m on the standard account.

If I might ask...what are the live concerts like? Depending on the orchestras, that could be quite a good lure for me. Could you give a couple examples?

Sorry, I haven't explored the live concerts as I'm on the standard service. Looks like you can explore the concerts and events with any account, and buy access a la carte.