Post by Gerardwrote in message
Post by Matthew SilversteinPost by s***@nycap.rr.comI've never heard the D/G recording of #3 by LB. Do the folks around here find it
preferable to his earlier Sony recording, which is one of my favorites?
I should have added that the differences between the two performances are
much, much smaller than the differences between, say, the NYPO M2 on Sony
and the later M2 on DG.
Matty
Aha. Those two (M2's) are vastly different. I wondered if the M3's are
equally different. Apparently not. LB got slower and more, um, extreme, as
he got older. His M9 on D/G is supposed to be a good example of that. I
haven't heard it though.
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AFAIK Bernstein has made 2 recordings of Mahler 9 for DG.
One of those (CGO ?) is an exception, being much slower, partially.
Bernstein's Concertgebouw performance from about 1986 has a distended Finale of nearly 30 minutes, and a slow opening Andante comodo, but the inner movements include a very fast Rondo-Burleske--under 12 minutes. In other words, Bernstein's main sin as he got older was to draw out contrasts to extremes.
The BPO performance from 1979 is indeed overall shorter timing. I can't remember if the third movement is as fast (my copy lacks a booklet)...I doubt it. His Tanglewood BSO performance from 1979 is three minutes slower than the Berlin, with a fast but not obscenely fast Rondo-Burlesque and a very reasonably slow Adagio. I wonder if other performances show that there's considerable variation from week to week in his pacing.
His last movement in Amsterdam, as slow as it is, is not as slow as Levine. I like slow or fast Finales, rather than middling Finales. Maybe that's why the Amsterdam recording is my favorite Bernstein for now, though the Boston recording has a special place in my affection just because it's one of my favorite orchestras.
Solti's second recording is another relatively slow Finale with a relatively quick third movement preceding it.