i've been rattled

[david johnson]

i bought the rattle/emi box a couple of weeks ago and have enjoyed it.
thus far, i've heard 1, 2, 6, 7, 10.
the orchestra sound is balanced to my liking.
right now, i prefer the cbso performances to the bpo, i wonder if it's the recording location that causes that?
i purchased some rattle stravinsky some years ago, but just couldn't dig it.  this is much better.
i do not believe rattle is as weak as a few of us here think.

dj

[john haueisen]

I agree, DJ.
Of course my judgment is clouded by the memory of Rattle describing how Mahler changed his life:  when he returned to his primary school after his first Mahler experience, the other kids could tell that he was changed--that something had changed his life.
Yes, I realize that this biographical information does not necessarily help make a good conductor, but at least he appreciates Mahler's music, and it is only natural that he would try to do justice to it.
--John H

[akiralx]

The BPO M9 is very good, though perhaps not superior to Barenboim's or (my favourite) Tokyo MSO/Bertini.  I heard his M2 a few years ago and thought that it wasn't so remarkable, and prefer quite a few others.  I've never felt the need to hear any of the others.

I suspect he conducts Mahler better than quite a few other composers, as most of his recent CDs have been pretty lousy (Berlioz, Debussy, Schubert, Mussorgsky, Holst).  However the Haydn symphonies set he did last year is very enjoyable, he clearly has a rapport with the music.