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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
At last count I had over 20 Mahler 9 recordings-my favourites include Maazel/VPO (hopelessly underrated!), both Karajan's and Sinopoli's Dresden performance on Profil. I can find someting to move me in just about all performances-exceptions are both Abbado's , Solti's and at the risk of abuse-Barbirolli's!
I somehow missed this recording on its earlier release,(shame on me!) perhaps put off by the earlier released though later recorded 1985 Bernstein Concertgebouw reading, which is a poor recording and too eccentric a reading for words-and the fact tha the current set was originally released as 2 Full Price CDs.
I've caught up with it on this bargain single CD re-mastered release-I am stunned!
I cannot find enough superlatives. The remastered recording is state of the art- stunning is again the word of choice. The performance is magnificent, and has forced me to re-evaluate my view of the 9th.The combination of Bernstein and Karajan's BPO is electric and on this evidence, Bernstein was THE interpreter of Mahler 9 after all!
There are imperfections and extraneous noises -Bernstein grunts and sighs audibly as usual-but they are a small distraction and do not detract from the overall excellence.
This reading chills, moves, inspires, excites and electrifies in equal measure and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is a total bargain, and I advise ALL who love this work or think they might to buy it, either as a welcome addition or as first choice. This is music-making,conducting and playng,lost to us now, and it is wonderful to have it in such resplendent sound. An unreserved recommendation. Stewart crowe
I somehow missed this recording on its earlier release,(shame on me!) perhaps put off by the earlier released though later recorded 1985 Bernstein Concertgebouw reading, which is a poor recording and too eccentric a reading for words-and the fact tha the current set was originally released as 2 Full Price CDs.
I've caught up with it on this bargain single CD re-mastered release-I am stunned!
I cannot find enough superlatives. The remastered recording is state of the art- stunning is again the word of choice. The performance is magnificent, and has forced me to re-evaluate my view of the 9th.The combination of Bernstein and Karajan's BPO is electric and on this evidence, Bernstein was THE interpreter of Mahler 9 after all!
There are imperfections and extraneous noises -Bernstein grunts and sighs audibly as usual-but they are a small distraction and do not detract from the overall excellence.
This reading chills, moves, inspires, excites and electrifies in equal measure and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is a total bargain, and I advise ALL who love this work or think they might to buy it, either as a welcome addition or as first choice. This is music-making,conducting and playng,lost to us now, and it is wonderful to have it in such resplendent sound. An unreserved recommendation. Stewart crowe
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A recording of Lenny's one and only encounter with Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic would deserve consideration by any inquisitive music-lover. When the music being played is Mahler's Symphony No.9 in a live concert it's damned near unmissable!
Of his three recordings of this seminal work, none can be considered perfect. His first account (with the NYPO on CBS) probably receives the best performance but the 1969 sound is just starting to age a little. His final recording (with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 1985) is a very extreme and personal view which I will defend to the death but I acknowledge it's eccentricity and DG did make a bit of hash of the sound. Sitting somewhere in the middle then is this one-off from 1979's Berlin Festival. The late-analogue sound is superb in its natural balance, dynamic range and level of detail. The performance also has more fire than the New York account but pulls back from the extremes of Bernstein's final view in Amsterdam.
It's an intense experience from start to finish and Bernstein is at his brilliant, wilful best; as likely to jab the accelerator as he is to stand on the brakes. The result is one of the best 'do or die' performances you are likely to hear on record, with an intensity of musical expression that comes all too rarely. He pushes the Berliners to the brink time and time again (try the end of the Rondo-Burleske!); he never lets them get comfortable in this most uncomfortable of symphonies. Adding to the intensity is Lenny's vocal contribution. You can hear him humming along in parts of the first movement, there are plenty of emphysema-stained grunts and at the great climax of the concluding Adagio it sounds like he falls off the podium! We then come to what has become the most talked-about moment in the entire recording: just what does happen to those trombones? Where do they go?! It's never been explained and we'll probably never know. It just adds to the mystique of a remarkable and legendary encounter.
This can't really be considered a first choice recording; try Rattle [ Mahler: Symphony No. 9 ], Abbado [ Mahler: Symphony No.9 ] or Haitink [ Mahler: Symphony No.9/Das Lied von der Erde ] for that. However, I would urge you to make room for it on your shelf and you will be considerably richer for its acquaintance.
Of his three recordings of this seminal work, none can be considered perfect. His first account (with the NYPO on CBS) probably receives the best performance but the 1969 sound is just starting to age a little. His final recording (with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 1985) is a very extreme and personal view which I will defend to the death but I acknowledge it's eccentricity and DG did make a bit of hash of the sound. Sitting somewhere in the middle then is this one-off from 1979's Berlin Festival. The late-analogue sound is superb in its natural balance, dynamic range and level of detail. The performance also has more fire than the New York account but pulls back from the extremes of Bernstein's final view in Amsterdam.
It's an intense experience from start to finish and Bernstein is at his brilliant, wilful best; as likely to jab the accelerator as he is to stand on the brakes. The result is one of the best 'do or die' performances you are likely to hear on record, with an intensity of musical expression that comes all too rarely. He pushes the Berliners to the brink time and time again (try the end of the Rondo-Burleske!); he never lets them get comfortable in this most uncomfortable of symphonies. Adding to the intensity is Lenny's vocal contribution. You can hear him humming along in parts of the first movement, there are plenty of emphysema-stained grunts and at the great climax of the concluding Adagio it sounds like he falls off the podium! We then come to what has become the most talked-about moment in the entire recording: just what does happen to those trombones? Where do they go?! It's never been explained and we'll probably never know. It just adds to the mystique of a remarkable and legendary encounter.
This can't really be considered a first choice recording; try Rattle [ Mahler: Symphony No. 9 ], Abbado [ Mahler: Symphony No.9 ] or Haitink [ Mahler: Symphony No.9/Das Lied von der Erde ] for that. However, I would urge you to make room for it on your shelf and you will be considerably richer for its acquaintance.
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've been waiting several years for DG to reissue this concert performance of 1979 at an affordable price, so it is very gratifying to find it so cheap and all 82 mins squeezed onto one CD.
An historic occasion: the only time Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, and proceeds going to support Amnesty. It was not the first time he breached fortress Philharmonie, however; the Mahler Nine was given with the Vienna Phil in 1971 in an emotionally draining concert now available on DVD Mahler - Symphonies Nos. 9 and 10, Das Lied Von Der Erde [DVD] [2005]. This later concert is slightly different in matters of interpretation, but only slightly.
I think, in contrast to Karajan's celebrated live Ninth Mahler: Symphony No.9, this concert recording is a document of a one-off event that may not withstand too much repetition. At last able to direct the awesome Berliners, Bernstein lives very dangerously and the music-making is often electrifying, very spontaneous, of/for the moment. But maybe the moment passes, just as one sometimes feels with those Celibidache live issues. This only serves to reinforce how startlingly great the Karajan performance is, with its breathtaking artistry, superb sound and grasp of the whole. Their recording also has a greater range of dynamics, with true pianissimi. The Bernstein/BPO partnership, like an unforgettable two-night stand, is not without its high octane errors, misjudgments, extraneous noises - from Lennie especially - but also its inspired off-the-cuff decisions.
I strongly recommend the DVD for the theatricality of Bernstein's conducting, his highly strung emotional commitment and that of the VPO whose strings move as one with Lennie's baton in the great adagio. His vocals are less intrusive on DVD where he is the focus of attention. But the Karajan is no less remarkable an event, when you take into account only two years earlier his studio recording was an award winner and he almost never authorised the release of live recordings.
There may be more emotional force with Bernstein, but there is more spirituality with Karajan. Why choose, have both.
An historic occasion: the only time Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, and proceeds going to support Amnesty. It was not the first time he breached fortress Philharmonie, however; the Mahler Nine was given with the Vienna Phil in 1971 in an emotionally draining concert now available on DVD Mahler - Symphonies Nos. 9 and 10, Das Lied Von Der Erde [DVD] [2005]. This later concert is slightly different in matters of interpretation, but only slightly.
I think, in contrast to Karajan's celebrated live Ninth Mahler: Symphony No.9, this concert recording is a document of a one-off event that may not withstand too much repetition. At last able to direct the awesome Berliners, Bernstein lives very dangerously and the music-making is often electrifying, very spontaneous, of/for the moment. But maybe the moment passes, just as one sometimes feels with those Celibidache live issues. This only serves to reinforce how startlingly great the Karajan performance is, with its breathtaking artistry, superb sound and grasp of the whole. Their recording also has a greater range of dynamics, with true pianissimi. The Bernstein/BPO partnership, like an unforgettable two-night stand, is not without its high octane errors, misjudgments, extraneous noises - from Lennie especially - but also its inspired off-the-cuff decisions.
I strongly recommend the DVD for the theatricality of Bernstein's conducting, his highly strung emotional commitment and that of the VPO whose strings move as one with Lennie's baton in the great adagio. His vocals are less intrusive on DVD where he is the focus of attention. But the Karajan is no less remarkable an event, when you take into account only two years earlier his studio recording was an award winner and he almost never authorised the release of live recordings.
There may be more emotional force with Bernstein, but there is more spirituality with Karajan. Why choose, have both.
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