Best live Mahler concerts you heard

[alpsman]

Good as recordings and discs maybe, i think the live, real event is most precious.
My greater Mahler concerts were:

Abbado/Berlin PO Symphony 3(1998)

Sinopoli/Staatskapele Dresden  Symphony 9(1997)

Tilson Thomas/London SO    Symphony   7(2000)

Inbal/National orchestra France    Symphony  4(1992)

Neumann/Czech PO   Symphony  1(1986)

Abbado/BPO  M5(1993)

For the NOT so good concerts, some surprises

Jansons  M2(with Oslo) and M1(with BRSO last year)
Ozawa M6/BSO
Fedoseyev M9/VSO(the Vienna symphony not the Philharmoniker)
Mehta  M1/Israel PO

Your turn

[Don]

My very first classical concert as a 15 yr old: Mahler 7th Solti CSO when they were touring Central Illinois. Started my life long love affair with Mahler.

[John Kim]

Good as recordings and discs maybe, i think the live, real event is most precious.
My greater Mahler concerts were:

Abbado/Berlin PO Symphony 3(1998)

Sinopoli/Staatskapele Dresden  Symphony 9(1997)

Tilson Thomas/London SO    Symphony   7(2000)

Inbal/National orchestra France    Symphony  4(1992)

Neumann/Czech PO   Symphony  1(1986)

Abbado/BPO  M5(1993)

For the NOT so good concerts, some surprises

Jansons  M2(with Oslo) and M1(with BRSO last year)
Ozawa M6/BSO
Fedoseyev M9/VSO(the Vienna symphony not the Philharmoniker)
Mehta  M1/Israel PO

Your turn

You mean you really have been to all these concerts?? Wow, I envy you

I've been to few and the best I can recall is

Chailly/RCO DLVDE

in Boston in early 90's.

I can't recall the tenor but the alto was ven Nes. Another impressive concert was Ozawa/BSO M9th in Boston around the time Philips was recording Ozawa's Mahler cycle.

John,

[barry guerrero]

Bernstein/VPO M5 (Davies Hall, S.F. - far better than the commercial recording)

Bernstein/VPO M6 (Carenegie Hall, N.Y.)

Tennstedt/LPO M2 (Royal Festival Hall)

George Cleve/San Jose S.O. M3 (Flint Center, Cupertino)

Levine/VPO M3 (Carnegie Hall; but I liked the George Cleve performance even better)

MTT/SFSO M8 (Davies Hall; the earlier 1998 performance - far better than his later ones)

De Waart/SFSO M5 (Davies Hall)

Riccardo Muti/Philly M1 (Davies Hall, S.F.)

Zinman/SFSO M6 (Davies Hall - with the electronically enhanced hammer strokes)

Haitink/Concertgebouw M7 (Davies Hall, S.F.)

De Waart/SFSO M7 (every bit as good as the Haitink one, and far, FAR better than MTT's)

Barenboim/CSO M7 (Carnegie Hall)

A. Litton/Dallas S.O. M8 (Meyerson Hall, Dallas)

Ozawa/Saito Kinen S.O. M9 (Davies Hall, S.F - the audience was perfectly silent!!!)

Slatkin/SFSO M10 - Mazzetti version (Davies Hall)

Chailly/Concertgebouw "DLvdE" with Jard Van Ness, mezzo (Davies Hall - forgot who the tenor was)

Jessye Norman/George Cleve/S.J.S.O. "DLvdE" (notable for J.N.'s outstanding vocal contribution!)

Eric Kujawsky/Redwood Symphony M6 (I had strong influence over many of the percussion issues; particularly doublings)

Kujawsky/Redwood Symphony M3 (again, the percussion were outstanding. Yours truly covered many utility parts)

* I would have included a G. Schwarz/Seattle S.O. M3 (Benaroya Hall), IF they hadn't played the tambourine part on a military side drum instead (same thing as a floor tom-tom). Ewa Podles was excellent.


Worst live Mahler performance ever attended: Solti/CSO M5 (Davies Hall; very late in Solti's career)

[akiralx]

Three excellent ones stand out for me:

M9 - Berlin PO/Abbado at the Proms, Albert Hall, London, 1990

M7 - Philharmonia/Salonen, RFH, London 2005

M3 - Hallé O/Elder (recently knighted I'm pleased to say), Bridgewater Hall, Manchester 2007


And the worst:

M1 - Philharmonia/Masur, Proms: totally boring, and agricultural conducting.

M4 - CBSO/Norrington, Leeds - wrongheaded interpretation amateurishly conducted.

[alpsman]

You mean you really have been to all these concerts?? Wow, I envy you

John
I have been to some more but these are the good ones.

But i think Barry beat all of us.

Also i forget to mention:

Chailly/RCOA M7(1995)  One of the best. He used a monster grancassa(big drum), espesialy build for Mengelberg. The Dutchs found these instrument in the vaults of Contertgebau and used also in the recording. You can hear it in the middle of the last movement.

And one very dear to me-the first Mahler symphony i heard live

M4 Tonkustler orchestra Wien with the great Greek maestro Miltiades Karidis. The soloist was the much lamented Arleen Auger in 1981

[Polarius T]

Alpsman, your attendance record is amazing; where the hell do you live??? 

The best: M5 by Abbado & BPO at Carnegie Hall some 10+ years ago.

The worst: M6 by Maazel with NYPO at Avery Fisher Hall a year-two later IIRC.

(I no longer have my concert memorabilia = exact dates available.)

PT

[alpsman]

PT
I live in Athens Greece. There is here a nice concert hall( from 1991). There are a lot foreing orchestras(the local symphony orchestras are not good), but unfortunately espelially from Europe(I want to hear and the big Americans).
Also there is a festival from the 50,s in the old Odeion Herodus exactly under Acropolis. There were concerts there with the very great Mitropoulos, maybe the pioneer of the Mahler revival.

[John Kim]

Oh, I forgot about

Ozawa/Saito Kinen Orch. M9 (SF, I was with Barry  )
Schwarz/SSO M3, M6, M9 (Seattle)
Eschenbach/BSO M1 (Tanglewood)
Solti/CSO M5 (Austin, TX)

John,

[Freddy van Maurik]

Wow!

If only I'd have attended so many wonderful performances!
My list of great concerts I attended is:

- M1 - Chailly/RCOA, Utrecht 1995 (my first 'live' Mahler)
- M5 - Vonk/Arnhem Philharmonic, Nijmegen 1995
- Das Klagende Lied - Haenchen/Netherlands Philharmonic, Amsterdam 2000
- Das Lied von der Erde - Sieghart/Arnhem Philhamonic (Stotijn, Litaker), Nijmegen 2006
- M3 - Renes/Arnhem Philharmonic, Nijmegen 2000 (farewellconcert of Jard van Nes)
- Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Chailly/RCOA (with Ziesak, Goerne, Fulgoni and Winbergh), Amsterdam 1999
- M8 - Chailly/RCOA, Amsterdam 2000
- M7 - Svetlanov/Residentie Orchestra (The Hague Philharmonic), Utrecht 1997
- M5 - Chailly/RCOA, Nijmegen 1997
- M4 - Chailly/RCOA (Ziesak), Amsterdam 1999

Freddy

[nickmolland]

The best (most memorable):

Klemperer M2 1971

The worst:

Allsopp M9 and M10 recently in Poole with the Bournemouth SO - it pains me to say it after the sexist controversy a while ago, but she just couldn't find the thread of eith

[Vatz Relham]

My best:

Chaiily/RCO/M10/RKL/Avery Fischer/NY

Macal/NJSO/M6/New Brunswick/NJ

Ivan Fischer/NYPO/M5/Avery Fischer/NY

Boulez/VPO/M3/Carnegie Hall

Barenboim/CSO/M7/Carnegie Hall

Zander/M8/Boston Phil/Carnegie Hall

TilsonTomas/SFO/DLVDE/Hampson/Schade/Carnegie Hall

Zander/M9/Boston Phil/Carnegie Hall


My worst:

Temirkanov/Baltimore Sym/M1/Baltimore

Vatz

[Polarius T]

I live in Athens Greece...the very great Mitropoulos, maybe the pioneer of the Mahler revival.

Must say I'm slightly suprised that Athens is this much of a happening place when it comes to classical music (looking at your track record!). On the other hand all the Athenians I've met have been very impressive in their knowledge of classical music, too (among other things), so maybe it shouldn't be so surprising.

Mitropoulos gets always too little credit for his work in introducing Mahler's music (or basically gets too little credit for anything). But he was excellent in this and an extraordinary conductor in all of his repertory in fact. The relative dearth of recordings by him is such a big pity (and the relatively inferior recording quality many of them possess) and I wish he had lived even just a little longer -- that could have changed much. He lived fighting against prejudices and promoting new music, and died conducting Mahler if I remember correctly. Today all that's remembered of him is his Prokofiev and aspects of his personal life. What a driven, intense personality he was, too.

A point well taken, then.

PT

[Polarius T]

Klemperer M2 1971

Now that is something else. I could not be more envious.

PT

[Polarius T]

My best:

Boulez/VPO/M3/Carnegie Hall

Yes, I forgot this. I was there too and it was indeed really very special.

PT