Is Eschenbach trully a great Mahlerian?

[Amphissa]

I saw Eschenbach conduct Bruckner 9 in NY in November. Eschenbach's tempi were a tad slow, but not overly, and the oversized orchestra was in fine form throughout (other than a noticeable flub that was not of his doing). A fine performance of a work that I like a lot.

Unfortunately, the opening "act" was Bang Bang banging away at Beethoven's 1st concerto. Absolutely dreadful. His comic on-stage antics were bad enough, but I could close my eyes and not watch him. But his mauling of the music overshadowed even his squirming and ooozing and swooning. This guy is high on my list for the "Liberace Clown of the Keyboard Award." But the little old ladies loved him. They had no clue what he was playing, but they loved him. So I'm sure the tour will be a success.

I'm putting together my dream team for the concert of the century. To be held in Disney Hall, of course.

Bang Bang (piano), Alisa Weilerstein (cello) and Joshua Bell (violin) playing Beethoven's Triple, accompanied by Portsmouth Sinfonia conducted by Pappano.

In case you've never had the pleasure of hearing the Portsmouth Sinfonia, here are a couple of items from one of their albums.

Also Sprach Zarathustra -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpJ6anurfuw

In the Hall of the Mountain King -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wiRivDMIYM

[stillivor]

  I've heard only the Eschenbach M6, which I thought pretty impressive.

  [He reminds me of the pop dj Goldie, who was in a UK celebrity conducting competition. ]

  I'll happily argue the toss about Horenstein - on another thread.


   Ivor

[alpsman]

Does anyone heard M9 under Eschenbach, Philadelphia in Carnegie 2005?
I heard it and liked very much, great playing, fantastic atmosphere. The recording is mp3-lot of external noises-but very decent, with great dynamic range, more honest than Nott. These two performances are like black and white, the Eschenbach great the Nott nulle.

[John Kim]

alpsman,

I think I heard the performance you mentioned. But I also heard another Eschenbach M9th concert with a German orchestra which was similarly shaped and interpreted. Both M9ths were quite slow - sometimes nearly stalling - but very powerful. I liked them quite much. One thing I noticed him doing on both occasions was adding a percussion to the four notes beats that are repeated following the timpani strokes at start the recapitulation in I. (coming right after the third climax). It's not in the score and had never seen it done elsewhere. I would say, it did little to enhance the musicality but iit was nevertheless interesting and fun to hear.

Did you get it while you're listening?

John,

[alpsman]

John

I have also the german one-I think it's with ndr Hamburg-but have not listen it yet.
You put the thing right , very powerful playing. I like the sonority Eschenbach gets from the orchestra. I found his Mahler very stylish.
On the contrary i was disapointed by a Bruckner 9 live from Vienna last year with the Philharmoniker.

I didn't notice the extra timpani you mentioned, but i will listen for this carefully.

But had you heard what he did in the last sec. in the extremelly pppppp?.
There is a loud sneeze, very close and.....well funny.

[John Kim]

I didn't notice the extra timpani you mentioned, but i will listen for this carefully.

It's not the timpani I am talking about. The start of the entire recapitulation goes like,

da-an-ta, dan-taaaaaa (brass in fff), bang-bang, bang-bang (4 timpani strokes), da-an-ta, dan-taaaaaa (brass again in ff), ting-ting, ting-ting (the same 4 strokes repeated in low string pizzicato)

In the last 4 notes Eschenbach adds a percussion (not the timpani, can't recall the name. Rute??) on top of the pizzicato.

Check it out .

John,

[alpsman]

John

I heard it, it's in 20:58 and it is definitely something wood sound. Maybe strings col legno, but not all the strings but a group on the left side.

I confirm my first reaction about the quality of this performance, and i like very much the dynamic range( the gran cassa tremolos really shattering the house).
On the contrary the new Nott/M9 has very narrow dynamic range ie. the recording is in high level-so no true ppp and no atmosphere. I am sure about this because I burned your cdr  in my cd recorder and not pc, and see the recording level.

[2gus4tav]

John

I heard it, it's in 20:58 and it is definitely something wood sound. Maybe strings col legno, but not all the strings but a group on the left side.

I confirm my first reaction about the quality of this performance, and i like very much the dynamic range( the gran cassa tremolos really shattering the house).
On the contrary the new Nott/M9 has very narrow dynamic range ie. the recording is in high level-so no true ppp and no atmosphere. I am sure about this because I burned your cdr  in my cd recorder and not pc, and see the recording level.

I just listened to the first movement of this Philly M9 yesterday and will listen to the remainder this weekend.  Indeed it sounds like a rute to me.  I agree that it does not add anything to the performance, but really does not detract either.  I'll have to pull out the NDR performance and see if it has the same added "touch".  From memory, the conception of the Philly first movement sounds very similar to the NDR one. 

I am rather amazed at the good sound quality in the Philly rip. The recording has very good dynamics, clarity, and captures the lower frequencies particularly well.  The Opera Share post states that it is an in-house recording, which I assume to be from an individual concertgoer.  I would be most interested to learn how they captured the sound so well. 

[barry guerrero]

Any rips of the recent Eschenbach/Philly M8?

Barry

[sperlsco]

Any rips of the recent Eschenbach/Philly M8?

Barry

I haven't seen any rips of the Philly M8, but there is a video of his Paris one from March 2008.