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Whistle Stopper - Mahler: Symphony No. 2
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List Price: $33.98
Our Price: $24.79
Your Save: $ 9.19 ( 27% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028942339521
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Resurrect the CBS Recording
Comment: I discovered Gustav Mahler through Leonard Bernstein's CBS recordings of the 1960s. I remember being thrilled the first time I heard the Second Symphony and it remains one of my favorite pieces of music. Too bad this more recent recording does not live up to that experience. Although the sonics are far superior to the earlier CBS recording, Bernstein's pace is very very slow and can be considered self-indulgent. Clocking in at almost 94 minutes, this is probably the longest recording of this work. This ponderous pace is especially apparent in the last two movements. In every other recording I have heard of this work, the finale depicting Judgment Day has some of the most exciting music in the repertoire. However, in this performance Bernstein has made the music almost boring. I kept on wanting him to move on and could not really enjoy Mahler's triumphant music. My best advice is to resurrect Bernstein's 1963 recording with Janet Baker and enjoy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mahler Lover
Comment: I highly respect Bernstein and his conducting. His recording of Mahler One is my favorite, and several of his Shostakovich Symphonies (his 5th in particular) are genuine works of art. When it comes to this recording of Mahler Two, I felt that is was big let-down. The end, which is one of the most powerful outpouring of emotions I have ever come across in music, was taken awfully slow. It was overdramatic, and lost my interest because of the tempo. The soloists didn't do to much to blend with each other either. Often they overpowered the orchestra, and the string section was lost. The full choir, though the most beautiful I have heard on a recording of Mahler Two as of yet, was overpowered by the orchestra. I would suggest listening to other recordings, such as Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic. If you listen to this recording first, however, the magic will not lost. It is my opinion that other conductors shaped the music better than Bernstein did.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mahler Symphony No. 2
Comment: If you've read the many reviews of this performance as I have you will have heard both praise and criticism in almost equal doses. For one, I love this symphony above all others and this performance of it above all others.
There are more cerebral interpretations of Mahler including those of Boulez and Abbado. They emphasize the sublety, structure and harmonic complexity of Mahler, aspects of his symphonies which are often overlooked. However at the core of this work is lyricism, energy and emotion all of which are wonderfully evoked by Leonard Bernstein.
For Bernstein, this recording is the culmination of many memorable performances of this work. His three recordings of this work are all remarkable in their own way but the first two ultimately lead the path to this remarkable 1988 recording. Many memorable live performances of this work also shaped Bernstein's understanding of this beautiful score.
Listen to the lyricism and haunting passages in the softer parts of each movement for they contain some of the most beautiful orchestral phrasing one will ever hear. By the time he made this recording Bernstein had long ago harvested all of the "low hanging fruit" of this work and is introducing us to the sweet nectar from the highest of its limbs.
As other reviewers have pointed out, some of the tempi in this performance are slower than other recordings incluing his prior two. This is because by the time he made this recording, Bernstein had more to bring to each passage of this symnphony than possibly any other conductor has.
The final movement of this work represents the culmination of Bernstein's career as it is part of a culmination of the symphonic form. This performace is an incredible journey through the beauty, majesty, symmetry and emotion that are embodied by Mahler and Bernstein.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The definitive performance
Comment: Like several others who have written reviews here, I, too, was in the audience when this concert was recorded. Unlike the others, I have yet to hear the cd, although I've spent nearly 20 years wanting to hear it and to experience that evening again. It was, by far, the single most powerful musical experience of my life. Just thinking of it brings back the tremendous emotions of that night in April 1987.
Allow me to add some things that no one else who was there has mentioned. Not only were we informed beforehand that the concert was being recorded -- can't say that I remember being given cough drops -- I must say I was in a daze afterward and have been ever since -- but we knew that at the end of the concert, Bernstein would be given the Albert Schweitzer Music Award.
Despite rather extreme poverty, I had treated myself to the concert as a 32nd birthday present to myself. It was worth far far more to me than the month of peanut butter sandwiches that followed. The only seat I could afford was in one of the upper balconies on the right side of the auditorium; I sat close to the railing and could see the orchestra, the soloists and Bernstein from above.
Once the music started, I don't remember moving, blinking or even breathing until the last note played. It was shattering. It was exhilarating. When the music ended, the audience took a collective breath and exhaled very slowly. All around me, I could hear people sobbing. After what seemed like several minutes, but was probably only a few seconds, the cheering started, rolling over me in waves. Before I even knew I'd left my seat, I was on my feet. I glanced at my watch, realizing to my amazement how much time (94 minutes, according to others who have written here) had elapsed. The cheering continued for a good 10 minutes or so. I'm not exagerrating when I say that never before or since have I heard anything like it -- just when you thought the applause couldn't get any louder or more passionate, it grew -- not unlike the end of the Mahler 2nd itself -- and grew and grew and grew in intensity. Wanting to record this night in my memory, I took a slow look around the theater, and saw tears on nearly every face. Everyone was standing; everyone was cheering.
Then, just when we'd forgotten all about it, Bernstein was presented with the Albert Schweitzer Music Award. The applause and cheers started all over again. I do recall looking at my watch as I gathered my things to leave and being stunned to realize that nearly half an hour had passed since the music ended.
The crowd surrounded me as I left Avery Fisher Hall. There was an emotional bond among us. Behind me, I heard someone read my mind, saying just what I was thinking: "This piece should never be performed again. No one could ever come close to this performance."
During the next several minutes as I left the theater and walked up Broadway to my apartment, that same thought echoed around me, spontaneously, it seemed. Everyone who was there seemed to have come to the same conclusion: "No one should ever attempt to play Mahler's Second again." "This was the definitive performance." "It can't be topped." "This was it. No one should ever conduct this piece of music again."
Since that night, I have never again listened to Mahler's 2nd. Not a recording, and certainly not in person. I couldn't. I'd heard the best, and nothing else will do.
I'm placing my order right now. I've waited nearly 20 years to get this recording, and I really don't care how much it costs. It's worth every penny to me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Comparing two Mahler Seconds from Bernstein
Comment: Bernstein so closely identified himself with the Mahelr Second that he made three recordings. For a long time two have stood out: the first, from 1963, with the New York Phil. (Sony) and the last, from 1988, from a live concert, also in New York (DG). Sony owns another live concert from 1974 with the London Sym. and the unmatched Janet Baker as soloist in "Urlicht," but it has boomy cathedral sound and is hard to find. Comparing the two major recordings brings out interesting contrasts.
Sony 1963: Bernstein was 45 and freshly arrived at Mahelr when he made this recording. The phrasing in every movemeent has a spontaneous freshness that few have ever duplicated, including Bernstien himself. Nothing is played for rhetorical effect. Tempos are moderate; the orchestra plays beautifully and is captured in spacious sonics at Manhattan Center. The two vocal soloists, mezzo Jennie Tourel and soprano Lee Verona, were Bernstein favorites, but neither is ideal. Tourel sounds mature and doesn't blend well with Verona in the finale; her Urlicht is sincere and moving, however. The professional chorus is excellent but recorded too far back for us to make out the words or for maximum impact.
DG 1988: Twenty-five years later, when Bernstein was 70, he retained the basic shape of his earlier interpretation but slowed it down, by almost 4 min. in the finale, which is quite broad now. Spontaneity has been exchanged for a deeper, more settled view but also some rhetoric. The sound is multi-miked, often close up, and with not as much air around it as for Sony. there is more underlining for emphasis, but not to an extreme. I think the finale suffers fromB ernstein's earnestness to make sure it sounds cosmic, yet even here he applies convincing points--the stupendous coda does sound cosmic. He uses another aging mezzo, Christa Ludwig, for the Urlicht, which she sings beautifully. It's too bad that LB takes two min. longer in this short movement; it sounds funereal. Soprano Barbara Hendricks sounds ideal. The chrosu is also better than on Sony and recorded, like the organ in the finale, with much more impact than before; we canmake out more words thanks to the multi-miking.
As interpretations, I think there is little to choose for the first three movements. After that, Bernstein is more musically fresh in 1963 but captured in more dramatic sonics in 1988. Chorus and soloists are also better in the 1988 set. The later performance ends in wrenching catharsis, and for some lsiteners that will make the difference. Both sets are five-star readings on the highest plane of performance and musicality.
(Since it is full price with no fillers, this DG set might lose out economically, but it has recently been reissued at mid-price in a box set of Bernstein's Mahler.)
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Editorial Reviews:
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This is the most imposing performance of this symphony currently available. The tempos are rather slow, but Leonard Bernstein sustains the music's tension superbly, and the climaxes are every bit as overwhelming as they must be to justify the time he takes getting there. The concerts from which this recording derives were among the musical events of a lifetime, and much of that sense of occasion has found its way onto this disc. If you want to be blown away by music, then this baby's for you. --David Hurwitz
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