Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
LIVE PERFORMANCE THAT GETS BETTER AND BETTER, 31 Aug 2005
I remember this Prom concert well. It was only the second performance of a Mahler symphony I had ever heard (they were pretty few and far between in those days). And it blew my socks off. I've been a convert to the music ever since.With Stoki there is always the uneasy balance between the showman or the vulgarian and the supreme moulder of orchestral sounds and the profound musical thinker. Both were on display that evening. Having brought the performance to a towering and overwhelming conclusion, he then encored the final pages. I know we all reacted as you would expect and shouted for more. I know he was eager to proselytise on behalf a composer he loved and championed at a time when his reputation was only just beginning to pick up. But, two last judgements in an evening - really! Nevertheless, listening to this performance now with the experience of many other conductors in this symphony since, it is still a stunning interpretation. The performance is a little slow to get off the ground. The first movement is good but not electrifying. But as the symphony progresses, the performance just gets better and better. The second movement manages to retain a lightness and rhythmic lift despite the cavernous Albert Hall acoustic. The Scherzo is Wunderhorn magical - listen to the way the trumpets soar in the first trio. A young Janet Baker brings a wonderful freshness to Urlicht and for the last movement, with its brass summonses, its marches of the dead, its lonely bird trilling its replies to a distant last trump and its monumental Resurrection peroration, Stoki is - as you would expect - in his element. This is not the most 'symphonic' reading of the last movement: one is aware of different sections butting up against each other rather than being integrated into a greater whole (cf. Rattle on EMI). But Stokowski gives each section its due weight, he balances tempi with rare judgement and produces predictably glorious sounds from his BBC forces. It has to be said that we were a rather asthmatic audience for a high summer Prom. And this was the unrestructured Albert Hall, before the flying saucers appeared. However the BBC engineers managed it well and while it remains a big resonant space, they spare us the second echo performance one usually got in the Hall in those days. Whoever chooses the tapes for this BBC legends series does so, for the most part, with great judgement. This was in the flesh and is on disc a memorable performance. Stokowski had championed Mahler's work long before it became fashionable. This performance was a major stepping-stone in the rehabilitation of the composer's work in this country. It certainly set me on the road to exploring all his works when that wasn't very easy - either in the concert hall or on record. And it's a performance that rewards hearing again after all these years.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Performance which transcends the Performance!, 25 Nov 2008
It seldom happens today, but in 60s and 70s, those who were lucky enough, could encounter performances of lifetime in which one feels as if being transported into another world or as if whole concert hall was uplifted to a different plain. The great conductors like Ormandy, Reiner, Solti, Karajan, Bernstein, Mravinsky, Svetlanov, Tennstedt and above all Stokowski could do it occasionally, but often those live performances were not recorded officially or if recorded, very badly done - the most notorious case being Ormandy's near miracle performance of Mahler's 2nd recorded and completely ruined by RCA's engineers (Mahler:Symphony No.2 Auferstehung).
Fortunately for us, this colossal live performance by Stokowski/LSO, recorded in 1963 at Royal Albert Hall, didn't suffer the same fate. The stereo recording quality is surprisingly good (perhaps thanks to the fine remastering?) and it encompasses the huge dynamic range which was tripled by Albert Hall's cavernous acoustics (a nightmare for recording engineers!). Amazing thing is that Stokowski used this acoustics to his full advantage, creating truly apocalyptic vision in stupendous scale. Right from the beginning, you realise you have embarked on long and agonazing journey of epic proportion which is destined to end in something great. But when the journey actually nears the climax, you realise it is going to be even greater. I have all great recordings of Resurrection Symphony, but none of them can surpass the transcendental profundity, the towering grandeur and the overwhelming impact of the final apotheosis that seem to open up other world in front of you. The audience explode into unstoppable ecstatic ovation. How I wish I was there! But I wasn't even born then!!
This is definitely the most awe-inspiring, heavy-weight account of Mahler 2nd among following great recordings.
Mahler - Symphony No 2
Mahler - Symphony 2
Mahler: Symphony No. 2
Symphony No. 2 (Kubelik, Mathis, Fassbaender)
Mahler: Symphony No.2 - "Resurrection"
Mahler: Symphonies No. 1 & No. 2; Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Mahler: Symphonie No. 2; Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; 6 Frühe Lieder
Mahler - Symphony No 2
Mahler: Resurrection Symphony No. 2
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Live!, 25 Nov 2008
This is definitely one of the most powerful live performances of the symphony. Things could go very very wrong with Stokowski, but when he got it right he would transform a concert into an unforgettalbe monumental event. This is the case with this legendary Prom performance. Nowadays conductors care too much about immaculate details, but I'd rather miss the thrill and energy of living-dangerously performances like this one.
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